A report by Joe McLeod,

Deputy President Spokesperson on Environment Independent Trawlers Assoc. Inc.

The Commercial Fisher’s perspective

We expect the down stream affects to be catastrophic if the mega dam at Traveston is constructed, down the Mary River flood plains then on to the Hervey Bay, Great Sandy Straits, Fraser Island and the ocean ecosystems continuing into the Eastern Australian current.

This is the true downstream impacts of any new dam in the Mary River Catchment. You could say an Ecological castration of a process that has evolved over millions of years and sustains biological diversity in the newly declared Great Sandy Marine Park.  The 30 or so large water storages and dams have removed the once vast flood plumes from the Burnett river system. This once fed in to Hervey Bay, Busted head regions and over the shelf in to off shore currents.

This is an example of what could be the future of the Mary River if this current proposal proceeds.

Many of the people now calling for no Dam have been lobbying politicians of all kinds for years for more dams on the Mary. The green lights by state and federal governments on the Walla Weir and Paradise super dam on the Burnett River would have increased the lobbying pressure for more Dams with total disregard to the marine productivity and ocean currents while promoting fresh water running into the ocean is a waste.

Then on the other hand other groups lobbied their elected officials for no dams in their areas. So what happened to the consultation process through the Mary R Integrated Catchment Co-ordinating Committee group (MRCCC)?

Below are some points of concern only on the downstream side, not upstream or the social or economic impacts. The loss of water through evaporation could be as high as 40%.

1. This is what we expect the impacts will be in the coming years from the Dam.

2. We expect that Acid Sulphate soil problems will develop over the first few years.

3. We expect extensive salinity in aquifers, bores and farmland.

4. We expect major slumping into the Mary River after years of dry weather with any floods after the dam is full resulting in large sediment loss into Hervey Bay and impacting on seagrass and dugong and the Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphins as happened after the 1992 floods.

5. We also have grave fears of a storm surge coming off the dam when full down the Mary R in flood during cyclonic conditions from the south. This flooding may be further apart but will happen.

6. We expect a major collapse in marine productivity from the removal of the large flood events, from scallops, prawn, crab and fish species plus spawning larval recruitment failings. The Mary R. is the life blood to Hervey Bay now and the life blood flows could be 15 years apart after the dam goes up. The Burnett R. has little impact on marine productivity, with few flood plumes ever reaching the sea because of the impact of more then 30 major impoundments in the Burnett R catchment.

The flood plumes used to be seen as wide as Lady Elliot Island and across the once most productive scallop grounds in Queensland then on to feed the east Australian current resulting in prawn productivity in the Swains Reef and Queensland coastal areas. No compensation has ever been paid for this. If the mega Dam is constructed on the Mary River the life blood now of Hervey Bay’s fishing industry will almost disappear. All we can expect is to have trawling nights and quota rateably reduced or removed and fishing licences removed under show cause provisions at no cost to the government. No compensation and Fishers will again be blamed for the resulting collapse of stocks.

7. We expect that with the loss of the Mary River flood events, hypersaline conditions in the Great Sandy Region, Hervey Bay and the eastern Australian current will increase and there will be less south east rain events. The fishing industry would just have another nail in its coffin. Warning signs are there. If dams continue to be built in south east Queensland and if the northern rivers in NSW are dammed as the rivers in Queensland have become, such as the Clarence R., then within 50 years we will have a nice arid climate and little rainfall from the East Australian current.

Yes if it becomes too salty you would get less rain. Then you have to look at other measures for water anyway. YES and many still claim that fresh water running to the oceans is wasted. Many catchments worldwide have reported collapses of fish and invertebrate populations after catchment modifications by the construction of weirs and Dams, with recorded losses in catches of prawns at 75% and catch reductions in pilchards at 90%. Please understand that International Limnologists claim an order of magnitude results from every weir or dam constructed in a catchment.

So if marine productivity from the flows of any catchment is 1000 tonnes annually, before construction then after the construction of just 3 dams in that main river, it would drop to 1 tonne. Yes and that is without even putting a net in the water.

We ask the Government experts to come clean and tell Premier Peter Beattie what the true cost of the mega dam on the Mary River will be.

We ask the Premier to put aside the Mega dam proposal on the Traveston site because he has told us at many country cabinet meetings that his government is about saving fish stocks. If this dam goes ahead then this statement is untrue and makes a mockery of any sustainability claim by the government.

Ask the experts. (I only do this for a hobby).

We ask the Premier to call a Forum on the Way Forward for dams in Queensland coastal catchments and impacts of removing flood events from the sea. It’s not yet too late but we suggest it is getting close to the point of no return.

Premier you have claimed, in the media, that if groups come up with good environmental reasons you would look at alternatives. What we are saying is to think about climate change, rainfall, ocean currents, fish and prawn stocks, seagrass, dugong, Indo- Pacific hump –back dolphins, salinity land, acid sulphate soils, to higher salinity in sea water.

What about Moreton Bay? Many of the impacts were pointed out in my presentation at The Way Forward on Weirs Conference in Sydney 2000. The topic was “Pathways to Waterways- a Commercial Fishing Perspective”. ————Yes they even talked about pulling dams down at that forum.

SO WHAT WILL BE THE TRUE COST OF THE TRAVESTON DAM? DOES ANYONE REALLY KNOW? WHAT ABOUT THE HYDROLOGY OR WATER CYCLE?

This does not mean that ITA opposes all dams. We are saying that the main river systems should be left alone with a few smaller dams, with less surface area for evaporation, built in deeper gorges or similar areas, off the main river itself. This would then maintain the ecological function of the river in the catchment area and allow that ecological process of flood plumes into the marine environment and ocean currents.

Look at alternatives including tanks, water recycling, pool owners to have tanks to top up pools, synthetic liners in old city water systems to cut back on treated water loss etc.. ITA has been asked, by Elisa Roberts the MP for Gympie, to participate in a delegation to see Peter Beattie to discuss the Traveston Dam. I will be ITA’s representative on this group as I am a resident of her electorate. We can only hope that he will agree to see Elisa Robert’s delegation and listen to our views.