They bought properties next to a rural resort but now face the possibility of a football field size industrial building housing large-scale ground water extraction.
Along with the massive building, there would be B-doubles and semi-trailers running up and down the rural road all through the day and possibly the night.
Local residents held a second meeting at the entrance to Cherrabah Resort last Tuesday night including folks from Cullendore Road, Cherry Gully and Stanthorpe Road.
Craig Dorrough, one of the residents, told the Town & Country Journal that the possibility of the project getting approval is spreading anxiety which is aggravated by the fact that residents don’t feel they can have frank and free conversations with their local councillors on the topic without causing them to trip into conflict-of-interest territory.
Thus, none of the residents have met with any councillors or have any sense whatsoever about which way council may be leaning on the development application. Residents have also tried, unsuccessfully, to get in touch with the property owner.
The license to extract water is a state government issue and while Member for the Southern Downs James Lister reminds residents that he is not involved in the application before council and can only speak of his own views and options at the state level.
“I met with a member of the water minister’s staff last week and asked if I could get an accurate prediction of what impact the drawing of 100-odd megalitres per annum from that aquifer would have on water availability for other nearby licensees,” Mr Lister told the Town & Country Journal.
“The predominant industry out there is primary production, and if the assessment I asked for showed that the proposal’s water take would diminish the water take of nearby primary producers, then as our local MP, I’d be aiming to do something about that.”
Mr Dorrough says that water licenses purchases are meant to be for local industry and water can only go so far up or downstream.
“The spirit of the legislation is not for someone to suck it out of the ground in a dry area like Warwick and (send it away in bottles); it’s meant to go on crops. That is a loophole that the state government could close,” Mr Dorrough says.
Furthermore, residents are questioning the use of rural land for “industrial uses” explaining that it isn’t a proposed feed lot or chicken shed but an industrial building outside of an industrial estate.
It is unclear why Cherrabah is seeking this pathway but it is likely that the owner wants a more profitable investment. The resort itself is “run-down” according to one of the several 3-star reviews on Trip Advisor. The Rabbits Eat Lettuce Festival was disallowed to be held at the resort earlier this year.
Residents have requested to make a presentation before a council meeting early in the new year to share their data points and concerns. While the window to make submissions closes this week, the SDRC is not likely to make a final decision on the application before March next year but this, too, is unclear.
Residents are feeling somewhat abandoned and are unhappy with the inability of councillors to come to meetings and talk openly with them.
“Councillors can’t really talk to you – because they’ll have to leave the table if they do – you can bring up your concerns but you can’t talk to them about your concerns or they’ll get kicked out of the room – it seems stupid,” Mr Dorrough says. “All they can report on is what the town planners and engineers” report on.
The main road to the resort, Keogh’s Road, is completely inappropriate for the volume of traffic the water extraction operation proposes, says Mr Dorrough. He predicts that, if granted, the project will go immediately to full production with 15 employees and 30 trucks coming and going.
“The whole of Keogh’s road would have to be ripped up and redone to accommodate that. And that doesn’t include rubbish trucks, employee vehicles, and services. What’s going to happen on O’Deas Road and Cullendore Road? You’re talking about a massive amount of extra traffic.”
When asked about the upside of increased employment that could arise if the Cherrabah project is approved, Mr Dorrough was doubtful.
“It’s not hundreds of jobs. It’s 15. And, if they pull the water out of the ground – vanishing water in a drought prone area, the springs could dry up. It might wreck numerous properties. The emotional stress on locals is terrible.”
