A local family’s long association with farming on Redlands Coast will be acknowledged after Council agreed today to name an area of urban habitat in Alexandra Hills after the family.
The 9415 sq m property, located at 61 McMillan Road, will be named ‘Wehr Urban Habitat’ in accordance with Council’s Park Naming Guidelines.
Mayor Karen Williams said while the land had been locally referred to as ‘Fruit Tree park’, the name had never been formally approved or attached to the property.
“With the adoption of the new City Plan in October last year, the property has a zoning of ‘Conservation’,” she said.
“Under Council’s Conservation Land Management Strategy and, based on the property’s features, the land should have the addendum of ‘urban habitat’ in its name.
“In renaming the property, Council acknowledges the Wehr family’s history with the land and how the Redlands Coast community and landscape has evolved.”
Division 8 Councillor Tracey Huges said community support in 2016 had instigated the request for a name to be formally adopted.
“The Wehr family is held in high regard by the community, and their association with Redlands Coast is representative of this area and our history,” she said.
“Three generations of the family settled on the land from the 1960s, and continue to live on Redlands Coast.
“Given their long tradition of farming on and preserving this land, the fact that the property will bear the family’s name and be termed ‘urban habitat’ is a fitting tribute to them.”
Cr Williams said an appropriate sign displaying the new name would soon be installed on the site.
BACKGROUND
The Wehr family migrated from Germany in 1959 and purchased 10 acres of scrub land on McMillan Road, Alexandra Hills.
The family farmed part of the land, producing strawberries, passionfruit, cucumbers, pumpkin and other small crops.
Farming ended on the property in 1976 and, two years later, the land was sub-divided into five lots, one of which was sold to a member of the Wehr family, who lived on the property preserving the surrounding bushland and raising a family at the residence.
Council acquired the property in 2010; and it is being managed as a Conservation Reserve – Urban Habitat due to its environmental values.