Last year (2022) I had a chat with Leigh Ratcliffe about his 1992 Palm Cove Strategy Plan.

Leigh Ratcliffe has been involved in Palm Cove design and development since 1982.

Leigh said:

“Led by Tom Pyne, Mulgrave Shire Council was really receptive to what we were trying to do back in the day. But I think the key thing was, the only reason that it happened I guess, is that we showed initiative and put our money where our mouth was in trying to protect the Palm Cove experience and that was the essence of it all.

In 1982 you know, people were literally chain sawing down the 500 year old melaleuca trees. I think that Palm Cove is one of the most pristine and beautiful places in the world. So without going through all that, I guess it’s more about the here and now and what the opportunities are today.”

I’ve been involved in Palm Cove for 40 years and designed and built many properties along the Esplanade including Alamanda, Villa Paradiso, Palm Cove Village Shopping Centre, The Reef House, Paradise on the Beach and Pepper’s Beach Club as well as properties in Port Douglas and elsewhere in Australia and the Far North.

Way back then I actually had the idea of paving the Esplanade and did a joint venture with the then Council.  We went 50/50 on the cost. That’s the sort of commitment that we’ve had. The purpose of all of this was to develop a village that had architectural merit, not from an architect’s perspective, but from a user’s perspective.  We wanted to create a quintessential Australian and Queensland tropical village. Ultimately it’s all about the people enjoying this wonderful pristine tropical environment.

And it’s not about tricks, which is what I told the tourism meeting the other day. It seems that people in tourism are trying to get onto a clichéd term to bind this place. It’s not necessary. Palm Cove is defined by its natural attributes.

I’ve still got an interest. I’ve still got a major property up on Buchans Point. So my heart’s in the place still, I still love it and want to be part of some of the next 40 years. It’s all about the natural attributes. What should not happen is anything that’s fake or out of control.

The meeting was trying to come up with a catch-all two words that define, you know, sophisticated elegance and all that sort of thing. It’s all bullshit because the best thing you could do; the best marketing, is people talking about the village, talking about this unique incredible seaside village.

One of the best case studies was Carmel in California and I flew over there many times when we were working on our Palm Cove projects. They had a famous mayor at the time in Clint Eastwood.  They had incredibly strict controls that actually created an amazing village. They controlled everything right down to signs. Real estate values went up because of these planning controls.

I’m a businessman and I understand that every operator is in there to try and make a buck. But you’ve got to actually dissect the vested interests and have a very objective and open mind to understand and respond to the motives. You’ve got residents. They have an interest and they’re interest is purposeful. They want to live in the environment, go down and have coffee or whatever. You’ve got hotel owners and operators and owners and operators in different categories.

Cairns is built on tourism and I love Cairns. I love the region. I love the whole area. Tourism is a great thing, but it also sows the seeds of destruction. So unless you control it and hold it with an iron fist, you lose all the good stuff that everyone came here for in the first place.

Nice stuff gets destroyed and there are hundreds of case studies around the world. If we don’t hold the ground now at Palm Cove, then all that 40 years of passion and building our village by the sea will turn to nothing.

Originally I was trying to turn the esplanade into a promenade and I’ve just pulled up these survey results on what residents and business owners are looking for in the masterplan. It’s interesting.

Responses from survey by Council published in Palm Cove Master Plan

Answers to questions like: What do you love about Palm Cove? What could be improved and what are your ideas for improvement?  If you just look through the responses, the whole point is ‘relaxed village atmosphere’.

So we’ve got it here already. We’ve got the best selling point already at Palm Cove. We don’t need art exhibitions. In fact I was a bit horrified in the tourism team meeting where they said, “well let’s put murals on the blank walls”. I mean we’ve got beautiful palm trees. Everybody’s coming here for the palm trees. Come to Melbourne and you’ll see graffiti all over the walls. You’ll see graffiti everywhere. We don’t need that in Palm Cove.

As you know, the hero shot is out the front of Nunu’s. If I got a cent for every photo that was taken there I’d be an extremely wealthy man and what is it? It’s palm trees and a walkway, a pedestrian walkway. The other place that I love is straight opposite Vivo where, you know, we put an island in the road and used the existing coconut plantings. And Council have curved the new walkway around them on the beach side.  It’s just fabulous.

And that’s the other great shot. So they’re both surprise, surprise palm plantation shots, but then you go down and you’ve got the big melaleuca trees, beach almonds and casuarinas and the like. It’s fabulous. We don’t have to fake it. It actually just needs to be protected and enhanced along those lines.

So, coming to the promenade, it’s interesting looking at all those comments, and everyone’s the same ‘relaxed village atmosphere’, ‘pedestrian and cycle connectivity’,’walkability of the village’, ‘trees and lighting’. They love the public amenities you know, all the things, all the infrastructure that we’ve all worked hard to put in. There should be improved parking and traffic control. Public facilities development conditions and density could be improved. Pedestrian cycle connectivity. None of this is a surprise to you, closing it to vehicles.

It’s all there – staring us in the face.  It’s all the community wants. So my point is that it is possible to close the esplanade to conventional traffic and we shouldn’t be scared of that. It really comes down to two issues and that’s car parking and serviceability to the properties that only have frontage to the esplanade, all of which can be managed.”