ABSTRACT
Vigorous community action is clearly an important element of planning processes in Queensland's South East region. This rapidly growing coastal area and its hinterland struggle to reconcile population growth with maintaining and restoring a mega-diverse natural environment. The sustainable community narrative comprises a set of assumptions or beliefs: firstly, decisions ideally are made through equitable, deliberative and inclusive processes that allow community members a range of options for involvement; secondly, these processes encourage and support social learning, negotiation, and community building; and, thirdly, the resulting decisions are ones that everyone can live with, and that steer the community toward sustainability. In Maleny, conflict has been triggered by the construction of a supermarket beside picturesque Obi Obi Creek, which crosses the village's main street. On the Gold Coast, a controversy is raging around a proposal to develop a terminal for cruise ships on The Spit, a strip of dunes separating the city's harbour from the ocean.
