Source: The Age, Advocate (Tasmania)
A town in the Australian island state of Tasmania is up for sale, and gay rights activists say homophobia is to blame.

Property developer Stephen Roche had plans to transform the spectacular ramshackle town of Penguin, on Tasmania's north-west coast, into an exclusive holiday spot. Just an hour by air from Melbourne, via the nearby town of Burnie, the town of 3000 was to become the "Noosa of the South".

But Roche's development dreams were tainted last year after he was subject to death threats and a mail campaign that urged residents to say no to an "influx of gay Sydney men" and to "think of their children".

Roche had a dead wallaby nailed to the door of one of his properties and his partner, Keith Westerby, left Penguin shortly after the campaign to take up a job in the Middle East.

A year later, Roche has decided to sell his 10 residential, commercial and retail properties, which comprise 80% of the land area of the Penguin central business district, or 20,000 square metres of beachfront land.

The properties range in price from $300,000 to $4 million and are for sale separately or as a package, with a total price tag estimated at $20 million.

The developer's decision to quit the North-West would prompt a "pink" backlash against the whole state, activist Julian Punch warned yesterday.

It would create a "very bad image for Tasmania" where "an old, dominant homophobic culture reigns supreme and unopposed" in many rural and regional areas, Coming Out Proud program coordinator Julian Punch said.

"Immigrants like Stephen are now returning to the mainland having experienced considerable opposition, homophobia and sometimes violence in Tasmania," he said. 

He warned gays would be less likely to move to, visit or invest in Tasmania because of it and others were leaving after being harassed and abused.

"There is a very strong element within the Tasmanian community that is homophobic and is violent and is having an effect on pink immigrants," he said.

Tasmania was the last Australian state to decriminalize homosexuality, in May 1997.

Roche, whose major development plans have split Penguin, denied homophobia was the reason he was leaving and putting 10 sites and a range of development plans on the market.

"My motivation for leaving, I guess, is I just think it's time for me to go," he said yesterday.

"It's been an interesting ride," he said, laughing. "But I don't feel as though I've been pushed out at all. It's a very small minority that have had any sort of homophobic prejudice. Tassie's probably got a way to go with acceptance of gay people."

Roche had recently won approval to build up-market apartments, a ritzy shopping strip and a 40-room boutique hotel, but is leaving without realizing any of his plans.

"The development application approval process dragged out a lot longer than we anticipated," he admitted, "and I think that it left me a little bit exhausted.

"We've really set the stage for someone else to come in and create a new precinct."

Full article: No room for gay developer in Penguin's property parade | The Age
Fears of pink backlash - Roche pullout may turn gays off Tassie ... | Advocate (Tasmania)