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.

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Updated on Monday, November 9, 2009 at 08:13AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, November 9, 2009 at 03:18PM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 10:47AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 at 06:16PM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 at 07:08AM by stevem

Updated on Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 03:46PM by stevem

A court case which could affect the federal government’s approval of the controversial Traveston Dam in southeast Queensland resumes in the Federal Court in Brisbane tomorrow. The state government owned utility Sunwater is being challenged by conservationists over its failure to meet a federal government condition that it provides a fishway suitable for lungfish at Paradise Dam on the Burnett River, 35km northwest of Biggenden in southeast Queensland. The court case has prompted conservationists to call on federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to delay a decision on the $1.5 billion Traveston Crossing Dam on the Mary River until the Paradise Dam case is resolved.

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Updated on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 11:22AM by stevem

THE federal court case which sought to test whether a Queensland government corporation had abided by conditions relating to the construction of Paradise Dam will resume next month after environment minister Peter Garrett decided not to intervene. The case, brought by Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council, was adjourned last month after the government corporation, Burnett Water, petitioned Mr Garrett to change a condition which required that lungfish be able to move up and downstream of the dam wall. Conservation council spokesman Roger Currie said the decision had ramifications for the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam.

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Updated on Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 03:05PM by stevem

Updated on Monday, September 7, 2009 at 10:55AM by stevem

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Updated on Monday, September 21, 2009 at 06:58AM by stevem

Updated on Monday, September 21, 2009 at 07:03AM by stevem

As the nation marks Threatened Species Day at 10.15am on Monday September 7, a four-week hearing commencing in the Federal Court in Brisbane,119 North Quay could prove critical for one of Australia’s iconic species, the “living fossil” the Queensland Lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri. The case initiated by Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council (WBBCC) with the support of a number of environmental groups challenges Sunwater over ineffective fish passage for the Queensland lungfish at Paradise Dam.

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THE legal battle over a fishway on Paradise Dam will stretch on for at least another six months, after the judge set aside four weeks from September 7 to deal with the complex case. “Justice Logan said it would take at least four weeks to hear it, and that was the first block of time available,” Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council (WBBCC) vice president Roger Currie said. But the WBBCC will have plenty of work to be getting on with in the meantime. “We have 244 boxes of information to go through from SunWater to gather evidence,” Mr Currie said. “What we have uncovered in there is fairly interesting - we have enough evidence to prove that the fishlift is not suitable for lungfish.” The ruling could have implications for not only the long-term survival of the vulnerable lungfish, which is only found in the Burnett and Mary Rivers, but also for other prospective dams in Queensland - particularly at Traveston Crossing near Gympie, where the fish are also found.

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Updated on Friday, December 12, 2008 at 07:16PM by stevem

Updated on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 10:27AM by stevem

A Federal Court judge is today expected to decide whether to delay a case that could have implications for the proposed Traveston Crossing dam. The Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council has taken legal action against a Queensland Government owned water company over a dam near Bundaberg in the state’s south-east. The conservationists want a fish lift at Paradise Dam redesigned because they say it fails to help vulnerable lungfish get over the dam wall.

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With a sweep of his arm, Dave Murray shows where the proposed dam would straddle the valley. Starting at a distant hill in front of us, his pointing finger moves around to a ridge behind and above us. The thing seems too gargantuan for this place – and too huge to fit in my head. I simply can’t see it. Before I can open my mouth to remark on this, Murray pre‐empts me. ‘That’s quite a high wall,’ he says. As though in mitigation, he adds: ‘It’ll end up looking quite aesthetic when we’re finished.’ Murray, senior dams project manager with Queensland Water Infrastructure (QWI), a corporation set up by the Queensland Government in 2006 to develop water projects, has brought me here on a tour of South‐East Queensland’s dams. We’ve seen dams old and new, and now we’re contemplating the rural setting of a dam that’s proposed but not begun.

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Updated on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 09:46AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 09:49AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 07:55AM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 08:00AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 08:53AM by stevem

Updated on Friday, November 14, 2008 at 12:01AM by stevem

THE controversial Traveston Dam could be under threat if legal action set to be launched today against the State Government is successful. The Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council will take civil action against Burnett Water, the former State Government-owned company that built the Paradise Dam, accusing it of failing to protect the rare and endangered lungfish. The WBBCC, backed by other environmental groups, will accuse Burnett Water of being in breach of its approval conditions because a fishway or fish lift designed to protect lungfish in the dam had never worked properly.

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Updated on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at 11:34AM by stevem

QUEENSLAND Water Infrastructure offi­cials should be prosecuted, not protected, over their failures to meet environmental requirements attached to Commonwealth approval for the Paradise Dam, Save the Mary River Group secretary David Kreutz said yesterday. Mr Kreutz said it was ridiculous a State Government that wanted to dam the Mary River should be in charge of auditing its past performance and should then appoint its dam construction company to conduct the audit. “When you get audited by the Taxation Department, they don’t just ask you if everything’s OK and then let you check your own figures. “That’s not what an audit is,” he said.

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Updated on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 09:23AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 06:32PM by stevem

QUEENSLAND Water Minister Craig Wallace appears to have misled the public on environmental issues central to the Traveston Crossing dam proposal. In a widely reported news release this week, Mr Wallace claimed, falsely, that “a Commonwealth Government audit of Paradise Dam, south-west of Bundaberg, has confirmed the dam is complying with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999”. However, the actual audit report says no such thing and clearly contradicts Mr Wallace’s claim. It says the dam is only partially compliant on the vital environmental issue of its effect on the endangered Queensland lungfish.

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