14th November 2008
By Bill Hoffman

These pictures tell the true story about the impact of the state government’s proposed multi-billion-dollar Traveston Crossing Dam.

The never-before-seen images were produced with the use of aerial photographs, RL levels and pinpoint-accurate GPS coordinates, which combine to show the level of inundation a full dam would cause.

Specialist cartographer David Patrick, managing director of modelling and visualisation firm Greenpondtsg, produced the images because he was annoyed by the failure of Queensland Water Infrastructure to include any real representation of the dam’s impact in its own material.

His company has also produced a series of topographical images from a range of perspectives around the proposed dam’s boundaries that give a real-life, three-dimensional appreciation of what the future looks like should the project go ahead.

In the coming week he will also release what he calls mud shots, pictures that will show the dam at various levels of capacity.

Mr Patrick said QWI had only ever produced highly stylised artist impressions that were at odds with the true impacts of the proposed dam on what is now a “food bowl” of top-class alluvial flood plains.
His images show the submergence of a section of the Bruce Highway which, like roads, power and telephone lines, will have to be relocated at enormous cost, as well as the loss of dairy farms, rural communities, wildlife corridors and aquatic ecosystems.

                                                                                  Before

                                                                                   After

They also expose what Mr Patrick describes as a “ridiculously shallow dam” that will result in weed and algal infestation and that just a metre drop in the water depth would see the shoreline shift tens of metres.

That is likely in a five-metre-deep dam that is proposed to be built on topographically flat grazing land, which will see ground seepage of 0.3 metres a year and surface evaporation of 1.5 metres annually.

Mr Patrick’s business is usually commissioned by mining companies, power plants and similar operations to produce real-life images.

Its work is subject to close scrutiny, often by lawyers as part of court appeals and needs to be of the highest accuracy and integrity.

The Mary River resident, who lives just below the proposed dam wall, said he had been inspired to put his technical skills to use because of the unflagging efforts of anti-dam campaigners.

QWI chief executive officer Graeme Newton told last week’s state-of-the-region summit at the University of the Sunshine Coast that the project would create 600 direct and 1700 indirect jobs as well as work for more than 600 suppliers.

However, whether the Queensland government can convince federal environment minister Peter Garrett that it satisfies all relevant acts remains to be tested, with it yet to submit its supplementary environmental impact statement to the state’s auditor general.