Obi Obi Creek Maleny Oueensland Australia

A couple of months ago, my wife and I paid a visit to Maleny. This town along with its surroundings are beautiful and a must see destination for all. There are waterfalls, a wonderful lake, national parks with walking tracks and many creeks most with public toilets & BBQ areas. My only disappointment was the state of the much publicized Obi Obi Creek.

The Obi Obi Creek made news headlines here in Australia as well as overseas, when Woolworths thought it to be a good idea to build a shopping centre on the bank of Obi Obi Creek. Not such a great idea at all as the creek is the natural home to the endangered platypus.

For many months the good people of Maleny and beyond battled against Woolworths , the council , and even the state government. In the courts , on the ground , even in the trees the war raged on , people fighting to protect the enviroment & above all the endangerd platypus. But of course the winner was Woolworths. Still the fight is continuing with people refusing to shop at Woolworths while convincing others to do the same.

Upon my inspection of the creek, there was a lot of rubbish in and around the creek, there were plastic containers, pizza boxes, tin cans, staws, cigarette butts and an oil slick in the creek. But all this was coming from the storm water pipe, on the opposite side of the creek. It was not from Woolworths, but from the very people who were fighting for the Platypus and the environment in the first place. Woolworths and there staff are doing a fine job it seems to keep rubbish and pollution out of the creek system, but only on there side, obviously as a point .

Woolworths is there to stay, so it would be better to work together rather than keeping up the fight. That way the good people of Maleny can direct their energy on the creek, which they seem to be polluting themselves. Remember its not about scoreing points, its about the platypus. Many hands, hard work, education, perseverance, these will keep the creek clean and the town proud. Shouting and pointing at Woolworths for the next 20yrs will achieve nothing.