Dredged up spoil project rejected

A RESURFACED proposal to use dredge spoils to prepare East Trinity for development has been written off by environmentalists who are not convinced dredging will necessarily go ahead.

Federal Minister for Northern Australia Senator Matt Canavan heard of the plan last week during a helicopter tour over Cairns with members of the Cairns Port Development group pushing for his government’s support.

Even if federal backing were on the table, Cairns and Far North Environment Centre president Denis Walls said the plan would never materialise.

“There is absolutely no chance of it happening. The plan has no legs whatsoever,” Mr Walls said.

“The State Government has made a commitment over 16 years and poured a lot of money into the rehabilitation of East Trinity,” he said.

“Imagine you had just done up your house, refurbished the kitchen, and then someone says they’re going to bulldoze it and put sludge there.”

The Cairns Shipping Development’s revised draft environmental impact statement has been opened to public submissions until August 25.

Mr Walls said the proposed one million cubic tonne dredging plan was not a foregone conclusion and that any push to build a new suburb at East Trinity ignored, not only the lack of a political appetite to do so, but also economic realities.

“Insurance risks have basically ruled out the idea there could be construction across there without having a massive impact on insurance premiums,” he said.

“The idea of creating a satellite city has been discarded and discounted by the people of Cairns over many years.”

Norm Whitney from the Cairns Port Development group stood by the call, but said that, even if East Trinity were never dredged, there needed to be a return to the now abandoned plan to remove 4.4 million cubic metres from the inlet.

“At the moment, unless that Reef 2050 Plan is changed and this present dredging becomes just part of the overall program, no more dredging will happen and Cairns will be the loser,” he said.

Advance Cairns CEO Kevin Byrne said it was time to move on from any East Trinity development plans.

“The opportunity for East Trinity is gone. The Federal Government has moved on, the State Government has moved on and the Cairns port Authority has undergone a rigorous process to arrive at what we consider to be the best available option for 2017,” he said.