• Cairns region, including the Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics Rainforests, QLD.
• Kakadu National Park, including Darwin as the major gateway community, NT.
• The Victorian Alps and ski-fields, VIC.
• The Barossa region, SA.
• The Blue Mountains, NSW.

The project was due for completion in December 2008 and the publication has been catalogued by the National Library but not yet published. The CRC will report next month and there will be a national Tourism Futures conference on the Gold Coast in August, 2009.

Meanwhile Principal Research Scientist Kevin Hennessy of the CSIRO tells us that there will be 20-40% less snow cover in the alpine ski fields by 2020. By 2030 there will be a 10-50% increase in 35C-plus days.

“There will be less rain in the south but an increase in rain events, storms and stronger cyclones in the north.

“Cairns has been lucky not to have been hit directly by a cyclone, but the odds are that it will be hit at some time in the future.

“By 2050, with expected rises in sea levels, that could see the CBD and airport flooded.

“The area flooded could be double what you’d expect in a one-in-100-year event.”

That could add up to a Katrina style mess.

It will be interesting to see what the report says about the Great Barrier Reef, under threat from warming seas, acidification and indeed sea level rise. In the longer term (second half of the century, if not before) the Gold Coast is in the front line also of sea level rise.

Also the Barossa Valley and Blue Mountains.

Last year Queensland Premier Bligh in one press release announced three projects to export 75 million additional tonnes of coal each year, the latest being Waratah Coal’s Galilee mine.

With the budget mugged by the GFC and natural disasters Queensland has been forced to consider selling some of the government trading corporations. Those coal mining royalties are like rivers of gold.

Vision and leadership is what we need.