IN THE shadows of anti-dam celebrations, a Wide Bay conservation group has this week continued its legal challenge to the suitability of a fishway for lungfish at Paradise Dam, north-west of Biggenden. Sunwater is being challenged in the Federal Court by the Wide Bay-Burnett Conservation Council which claims the State Government utility breached Federal Government environmental controls by operating the dam since 2005 without an effective fishway for lungfish.

Click to read more ...

Updated on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 07:57AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 07:17AM by stevem

Premier Bligh has outlined a six month buy back scheme for the Mary Valley landowners who sold their properties so that the Traveston Crossing Dam project could proceed. Ms Bligh said normal rules had been waived so that tenant farmers and other former Mary Valley landowners could buy their land back at the same price they sold it for. Under normal State Government buy back rules that opportunity normally only exists for 12 months after the original sale of the property and many of the landowners in the Valley sold their land up to two years ago.

Click to read more ...

Raine and Horne Mary Valley owner Nick Smith said when the announcement was made in July, 2006, the appeal of the area changed instantly. “It cost me a million dollars the day they announced it,” he said. “That’s how much land I had contracts on and it has taken three and a half years to get sales back up to where they were. “Now (buyers) don’t know what the price of land will be.” Mr Smith said the week before minister Garrett axed the project, representatives from Queensland Water Infrastructure were walking around saying they were “150% sure” it was going ahead.

Click to read more ...

THE Sunshine Coast will have more than enough water to keep it flush well beyond 2017, even though the Traveston Dam is absolutely off the table. The Australian Water Association’s Queensland conference was held yesterday at the Hyatt Coolum, just days after the dam was rejected by the federal government. When state minister for climate change and sustainability Kate Jones addressed the meeting yesterday, she said even after federal environment minister Peter Garrett “made the wrong decision in relation to the Traveston Crossing Dam”, our region still had a very secure water supply. Ms Jones opened her speech by saying, “At the outset, let me say the AWA sure knows when to schedule its regional water conference”. She said Mr Garrett’s rejection of the dam proposal, highlighted the strength of the region’s water grid, even without the giant piece of infrastructure.

Click to read more ...

Updated on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 06:09AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 06:11AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 08:56AM by stevem

The Bligh government has spent nearly $100 million on a pipeline that is still to be approved by the federal government. The federal environment department confirmed yesterday that documentation from Queensland coordinator general Colin Jensen for stage two of its northern water grid pipeline only arrived this week. It still had to go through a process of validation to ensure all relevant issues were addressed before it would even be considered by environment minister Peter Garrett.

Click to read more ...

Updated on Friday, November 13, 2009 at 12:43PM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 06:20AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 06:23AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 06:40AM by stevem

Updated on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 09:24AM by stevem

Updated on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 09:27AM by stevem

Updated on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 11:35AM by stevem

Updated on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 11:44AM by stevem

Updated on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 11:47AM by stevem

Tumbling land values have undermined the Queensland government’s plan to sell back the properties it resumed to build the doomed Traveston Dam project, potentially blowing a massive hole in the state budget. Premier Anna Bligh conceded yesterday it could take a decade to sell all 494 properties the government bought for $545 million over the past three years. The federal government has vetoed the $1.8 billion dam on environmental grounds, declaring it would endanger threatened species of turtles, cod and lungfish. Ms Bligh said the government would sell back the properties - but not for less than it had paid.

Click to read more ...

Updated on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 10:12AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 12:05AM by stevem

MARY Valley indigenous leader Eve Fesl yesterday dropped a bomb on the Traveston Crossing dam project, demanding a stop work order in response to claimed government breaches of its own cultural heritage laws. Dr Fesl yesterday claimed the government had ignored the rights of her people under the legal concept of contemporaneous history. She said the government and its dam construction company, Queensland Water Infrastructure Pty Ltd, had ignored this concept, which she says is essentially the provable cultural claims of people who really are from the Mary Valley. She says some Native Title claimants “would not even know where the Mary Valley is,” if they had not been told by QWI.

Click to read more ...

A Community organisation set up by the Bligh Government to help residents and businesses in the Mary Valley cope with the trauma caused by the Traveston Dam will cease operating only weeks after a final decision on the dam is due. The Community Futures Taskforce, chaired by former Queensland governor Peter Arnison, has helped pay for everything from swimming lessons to Melbourne Cup lunches in the local community in an effort to soften the social and economic blow delivered by the dam. But after allocating $11.5 million during the past three years on establishing a presence in the Mary Valley, the taskforce will shut down in December.

Click to read more ...

Updated on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 11:45AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 09:50AM by stevem

It has been discovered that dozens of giant fig trees, targeted for destruction by the Queensland Government to make way for Traveston Dam, are estimated to be 500 years old, with several having been missed by surveys for the projects EIS. Owner of one of the trees, and Mary Valley Farmer Doug Haigh said “Leonardo Da Vinci painted The Last Supper in 1498 depicting the last meal of Christ. That’s roughly when the fig on my property began its life. I hope the Federal Government stops this project as to destroy a tree of this size and age would be a tradgedy. I hate to think that my special tree may soon to have its last supper.”

Click to read more ...

Updated on Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 09:23AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 02:02PM by stevem

Queensland’s attempt to build what it calls “Australia’s greenest dam”, is about to be put to the test. Green groups and local residents have long argued the project would result in serious environmental damage and one particular issue they’re focussing on is the plight of the Australian lungfish. Transcript follows

Click to read more ...