{"id":961457,"date":"2026-11-12T05:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/961457\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T05:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:52:16","slug":"moreton-bay-agrees-to-shut-homeless-camp-after-state-authority-threatens-legal-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/961457\/","title":{"rendered":"Moreton Bay agrees to shut homeless camp after state authority threatens legal action"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Moreton Bay council has agreed to shut a homeless camp in response to threats of legal action by state authorities.<\/p>\n

The council turned Wyllie Park in Petrie into a free, designated camping site for homeless people in August.<\/p>\n

Today, the council tabled a letter from Economic Development Queensland (EDQ) in which the state body promised not to take legal action if the council agreed to its list of demands.<\/p>\n

The demands include not allowing any more homeless people to register at the site, and to evict the current homeless campers once their registration expires.<\/p>\n

\"Julian<\/p>\n

Julian Simmonds says he will only drop the show cause notice once the park was empty. (ABC News: Lexy Hamilton-Smith)<\/p>\n

EDQ chief executive Julian Simmonds warned legal action would remain on the table until every homeless camper had been removed.<\/p>\n

“At this point in time, I do not consider it appropriate to withdraw the Show Cause Notice,” Mr Simmonds said.<\/p>\n

“However I commit to doing so once Council confirms that the trial registrations have expired and Wyllie Park is vacant.”<\/p>\n

\"Tents<\/p>\n

Wyllie Park was supposed to be a place where homeless people did not need to fear eviction. (Supplied: Beau Haywood)<\/p>\n

After the homeless campers leave Wyllie Park, the council will be required to continue monitoring the site to ensure nobody else tries to camp there.<\/p>\n

EDQ had issued a show cause notice to the council, calling the park “illegal” because it fell within the Moreton Bay Central Priority Development Area.<\/p>\n

Wyllie Park lies barely within the Priority Development Area boundary, putting it within EDQ’s remit.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/p>\n

Peter Flannery says the camp was created in good faith. (612 ABC Brisbane: Kenji Sato)<\/p>\n

Moreton Bay mayor Peter Flannery said the council would comply with the state government direction.<\/p>\n

“The fact is that we could spend millions of dollars of ratepayer funds fighting this show cause in court only to lose anyway,” Cr Flannery said.<\/p>\n

“Council allowed free camping for people experiencing homelessness at Wyllie Park in an attempt to provide a short-term solution to what is a state issue of chronic homelessness in City of Moreton Bay, particularly in high-traffic public areas like the Redcliffe foreshore.<\/p>\n

“We backed Wyllie Park in good faith and believe it was successful in providing a safer solution for people experiencing homelessness who have no access to emergency or supportive shelter in City of Moreton Bay currently.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Moreton Bay council has agreed to shut a homeless camp in response to threats of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":961458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,132853,75,55690,326582,186865,128,496920],"class_list":["post-961457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-economic-development-queensland","tag-environment","tag-homeless","tag-julian-simmonds","tag-peter-flannery","tag-science","tag-wyllie-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/961458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}