‘PORT MUST DIG DEEPER’
Campaigners ask federal minister to back dredging upgrade
CAMPAIGNERS have ramped up calls for a major expansion to the State Government’s dredging plan for Port of Cairns.
Federal Minister for Northern Australia Matt Canavan has promised to take up the fight for a more extensive plan that would allow for mega cruise ships to berth.
Proponents have also revived a plan to dump millions of tonnes of dredge spoil to lay the foundations for a new community at East Trinity.
DREDGING supporters have dusted off calls for East Trinity to be transformed into a new residential suburb built atop huge amounts of spoil scooped from the bed of Trinity Inlet.
Members of the Cairns Port Development group took Senator Matt Canavan and the Cairns Post on a helicopter tour of the city to point out potential sites where dredge spoil could be dumped.
Well-known authority on the issue Norm Whitney rejected the notion East Trin- ity was an environmentally important natural wetland, pointing to a photos from 1988 showing it was covered by cane farms, grazing land and a healthy melaleuca forest.
Hundreds of those trees now stand dead and leafless in artificial stagnant ponds.
“Compare that to the present environmental mess we overlooked where the now former high-and-dry farming land is overgrown with secondary growth vegetation and weeds and is a habitat for feral pigs and other vermin,” Mr Whitney said.
A CSIRO study found the lower sections of East Trinity were 1.4m lower than the original land level.
The group appealed to Mr Canavan to use his political influence to have Cairns classed as a priority port and the original 4.4 million cubicmetre capital dredging plan to be reinstated rather than the current scaled-back version.
“The port has to be determined to be a strategic port and the dredging be able to continue as necessary,” Mr Whitney said.
“The present dredging program must only be classified as Stage 1 of the total project.”
Maintenance dredging is already undertaken annually but Down Under Cruise and Dive managing director Peppi Iovanella said it barely touched the surface.
He pointed out yachts and small boats actually avoiding the path set by floating leads directing users to the supposedly safest channel to the port, despite maintenance dredging being carried out just last week.
“It’s a joke. It’s not really dredging and it’s not safe. It’s not even maintenance dredging. It’s negligible,” he said.
“Forget the cruise ships, even the local operation is a problem. I don’t totally blame Ports North. All their money goes down to Brisbane.”
The Cairns and Far North Environment Centre and Ports North could not be reached for comment yesterday.