Support Eco-Tourism at The Bower at Broulee

The Bower was 'conceived' almost 20 years ago, and after finding the land, Sue & Mark approached the local Council and were told 'If you want to do that, you'll need to prove that you are a 'bona fide' Tourist Recreation facility. e.g. "install a tennis court, swimming pool, golf putting & driving range". This would have involved extensive land clearing and impact on our bushland environment.

Despite Council's "advice", we decided to develop The Bower with very low impact walking trails in co-operation with National Parks and Wildlife Service to complement a luxury nature based short break experience.

The Council is now proposing to re-zone the land whereby our current land use will no longer be permissible and placed a limit on our development to prevent any further enhancement of the facilities on our property.

The good news is that we have "existing use rights" and can continue to operate as we are and this will make us unique in the area, but inevitably the demand will mean that our availability will become even more scarce and/or prices will have to rise to meet the demand.

Moreover, the suggestions our guests have made to provide improved facilities such as outdoor spa's, on-site massage services, bird hides, environmental education, yoga and relaxation classrooms have now been prohibited.

We appeal to you to support us in objecting to the restrictions [on enhancing this sustainable eco-tourism business] that are embodied in the ESC Draft Local Environment Plan.