Infrastructure and planning minister Stirling Hinchliffe says people affected by resumptions for the water grid pipeline had a right to expect their properties to be returned to their original state. He said the Southern Regional Water Pipeline Alliance gained access to properties under the state development and public works organisation act of 1971 which stated that properties had to be fully re instated. The comments come as anger grows at the alleged theft of topsoil from a number of properties over whom water grid easements had been declared. The alliance denied yesterday that any of its workers or contractors had already been dismissed as a result of allegations of soil theft.

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Each week emails flow into my inbox from people whose expectations for the future are being adversely affected by the impacts of growth. Whether it be those trying to ward off the ill-conceived Traveston Crossing Dam, those in the path of Powerlink’s one-track energy delivery system, those awaiting the rollout of the northern pipeline to the proposed dam or the drive of rail duplication from the south, all are learning the vulnerability of dreams. We seem to be always making way for a future about which we have no say and whose impact is delivered at the stroke of a pen wielded by someone over whom we have no influence. There seems little commitment to the present. Community consultation is an expensive farce not driven by any genuine desire to solicit and consider the views of those impacted. People in the process of fulfilling long-held dreams through the commitment to long-term loans are too easily dismissed by the process as NIMBYs.

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The preferred route for a Powerlink transmission easement in Eumundi would cut through 14 consecutive properties that have land for wild life status and endanger the northern most colony of the Richmond Birdwing butterfly. Powerlink wants to run a high transmission line consisting of 14 lines carrying 275kv complete with 45 metre high poles through remnant old growth vegetation that now provides a wildlife corridor through 14 properties west of Eumundi whose owners have voluntarily set aside for conservation purposes.

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A draft environmental impact statement released this week by Powerlink has given the green light to the controversial $100 million Woolooga to Cooroy South transmission line project. And that has residents along the 64-kilometre alignment - which takes in scenic sections around the Noosa hinterland through Ridgewood, Eerwah Vale and Eumundi - seeing red. The proposal to build the South Cooroy substation and erect 275,000-volt powerlines - including an 8.5km new section with 60m wide easements - saw the creation of the Powerlines Action Group Eumundi. They claim that this intrusion - designed to head off a claimed electricity supply shortage by the year 2016 - will impact badly on their lives and drop property values by up to 75%.

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As it comes down to the wire, the need for natural allies to come to the Bligh government’s defence is an indication it is in trouble. Just how far back the baseball bat will be swung remains to be seen. But at least here on the Sunshine Coast - where the dam proposal, the water grid and powerline rollouts and demands for growth have exposed just how out of touch it is with community aspirations - it should be hard. Would a Springborg-led LNP be a better choice for Queensland? Probably not, but it is difficult to see it delivering worse. And after 11 years of a government that has allowed spin to consume substance and which has lost the capacity to listen to anything other than the sound of its own voice, it is time to find out.

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In the electronic media we’ve been shown the worm, at Eumundi CWA hall we were shown the waffle metre. On Saturday afternoon, five state political candidates were invited by PAGE (Powerline Action Group Eumundi) to lay their cards on the table regarding the Eerwah Vale powerline proposal. Five questions formulated by PAGE were answered by a panel of candidates: Steve Haines (Greens, Noosa), Cate Molloy (Independent, Noosa), Brian Stockwell (Labor, Noosa), Steve Morrison (LNP, Nicklin), Tony Wellington (Independent, Nicklin). Peter Baulch (Labor, Nicklin) had previously decided there was no point in attending a meeting where he would only be a “whipping boy for the government”.

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A Labor candidate fearful of being made the whipping boy at a one-issue election forum will stay clear of the event in Eumundi on Saturday afternoon. Peter Baulch, the Labor candidate for Nicklin, who has already hit rough water after describing the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam as a ‘2006 election issue’ confirmed yesterday that he would not attend the Powerline Action Group Eumundi (PAGE) forum because he ‘would be the whipping boy for the government’.

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Updated on Thursday, September 11, 2008 at 04:51PM by stevem

Energy minister Geoff Wilson has asked Powerlink to explain why it is seeking court costs from a Cooroy resident who unsuccessfully challenged their right to enter his property. During parliament in Brisbane yesterday, Nicklin MP Peter Wellington accused the state government-owned corporation of using “bully boy tactics” to intimidate landowners involved in the Woolooga to Eerwah Vale power line upgrade. Cooroy Country Cottages owner Jim Cooney, whose three unit accommodation facility lies in the upgrade’s path, questioned whether workers had a right to drive on his land outside an easement in Maroochydore District Court.

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Powerlines Action Group Eumundi would put its opposition to Powerlink’s planned Eerwah Vale power line project in the Coast hinterland to Mines and Energy minister Geoff Wilson today. The group wants a total rethink of Queensland’s energy delivery strategy with an emphasis on efficient local generation to meet supply requirements. It will argue that projections on which the Powerlink project is being based fail to consider alternatives. Lobby group coordinator Graham Smith said it had been encouraged by the Minister’s recent statements that “although Queensland’s (coal-fired) power stations are among the most advanced in Australia, they are earmarked to be closed down within 20 years … producing cleaner, greener energy will increase the cost of electricity to consumers, but it is a fair price to pay to combat global warming”.

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Updated on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 08:07AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 07:48PM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 07:55PM by stevem

Energex has told a Maroochydore Road property owner that it will call in the police and seek a Supreme Court injunction if he stops its surveyors entering his property today. Don Hungerford, who has farmed the land for the past 40 years, blocked entrance to the surveyors on June 26 when Energex last attempted to survey the proposed route for its Sun Power project. It is the latest of a series of resumptions and easement claims enforced on as many as 1000 Sunshine Coast property owners for projects including the Traveston Crossing dam, Powerlink and Energex cables, road works and the Landsborough to Nambour rail realignment.

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