For more than three years, residents and park users have been dealing with illegal squatters in Cascade Gardens. For far too long, the community has been left to put up with ongoing antisocial and criminal behaviour on a daily basis.

Repeated incidents involving people affected by drugs or experiencing mental health issues have included violence, physical altercations, verbal abuse, public sexual activity and drug use all occurring in close proximity to homes and a children’s playground. The smell of urine and human waste and accumulation of garbage  is disgusting.   

Some of these squatters had been living in Cascade Gardens for up to two years despite ongoing reports from residents. The process of removing the squatters and the clean up of the rubbish has taken over 6 months. Click here to see just some of the rubbish that has been removed from Cascade Gardens. 

We request Gold Coast Council to:

Commence action to remove illegal squatters when first reported. We have seen first-hand how quickly camps grow, with belongings, shopping trolleys, and furniture accumulating in a matter of days. 
Delays in taking enforcement action allow camps to become more established, making them more difficult to remove. 

Prevent illegal camping in vehicles:
We continue to see the same vehicles staying for up to five nights at a time, they then  move to nearby parks and return the following week. Because the front car park is highly visible from the Gold Coast Highway, it attracts more vehicles and the cycle starts  again.

We request Gold Coast City Council to implement an effective solution. Options could include relocating the existing park gates to the front entrance so that vehicles can’t enter once the park is closed at night or installing Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras to identify vehicles repeatedly using the car park overnight. . 

Help us protect Cascade Gardens please sign and share this petition. We ALL have  a right to feel safe and enjoy the park.