Three months after sending the controversial Cherrabah water license to the neutral territory of Cairns for experts to review, the state has been forced to approve the controversial paperwork.
Minister for Water Ann Leahy told the Town & Country Journal at the weekend state cabinet gathering in Goondiwindi that the Cairns experts had “extensively” reviewed every aspect of the water license and decided it was legitimately made.
“They looked at all the different decision and decision points that were done and that was very extensive,” Minister Leahy said.
She was anxious to communicate that the department took the issue seriously and forensically re-examined the original licensing.
“I understand where the farmers and locals are coming from. It’s such a precious resource for them. They don’t have any alternative. And I think there’s pressure on that system. And sometimes you don’t know unless you’ve had the modelling. We do lots of different modelling,” the minister explained.
“It looks like all of the appropriate things were done. Trust me, we were looking.”
Currently, the SDRC’s decision not to grant Cherrabah the ability to build industrial buildings on their property is in Queensland Planning Court. Minister Leahy said that “you never know where the Planning Court is going to go” but that she is following it, and it could take years.
“There’s plenty of water in plenty of other places without the controversy”, Minister Leahy said, maintaining her frustration over the Cherrabah status quo. The original water license was granted to the owners of Cherrabah resort more than 13 years ago.
The history of the water license is complicated. In the Sustainable Development, Corporate and Community Services Committee Meeting in August 2020, Joyful View Garden Real Estate’s application for commercial ground water extraction was tabled. That report outlined that on 18 December 2019, council approved a material change of use at the site to establish a water extraction and distribution facility there. Several conditions and changes were proposed and discussed including sealing and widening Keoghs Road to the intersection with O’Deas Road. The applicant requested an alternative to that and other conditions.
Public submissions in 2019 included criticisms of the development’s impact on livestock and grazing due to low water supplies in the area. Indeed, the Southern Downs was in the grip of a multi-year drought at the time. Further criticisms of water allocation, contamination of groundwater from range shooting and toileting at music festivals were also raised.
At the time, The Guardian reported that Queensland government experts raised “repeated warnings” about the project to allow 96 million litre a year bottled water extraction “in a severely drought-hit area”.
“Documents obtained by The Guardian Australia show how longstanding concerns about groundwater security at Cherrabah were overridden by changes to Queensland law enacted by Campbell Newman’s government in 2013”, the article claimed.
According to reports, Joyful View commissioned a study in 2009 “that was the basis for subsequent water extraction applications.”
In December 2019, former Mayor Tracie Dobie, Cr Rod Kelly, Cr Jo McNally, Cr Neil Meiklejohn and Cr Sheryl Windle voted in favour of the application. Cr Cameron Gow, Cr Vic Pennisi and Cr Yve Stocks voted against and the motion passed. Cr Marika McNichol was absent for that meeting.
The Town & Country Journal will follow the appeal before the Queensland’s Planning Court.
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