Hi-tech park edges closer
A WORLD-CLASS industrial precinct south of the Cairns CBD is gathering pace.
The Queensland Government is adamant its numbers stack up where Cairns Regional Council’s fall down.
The contentious Cairns South State Development Area plan has canegrowers fearing valuable agricultural land will be swallowed up by the project, but Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt has given assurances the loss will be minimal.
A HI-TECH industrial development precinct near Gordonvale is edging near, with the State Government adamant its numbers stack up where Cairns Regional Council’s fall down.
The Cairns South State Development Area plan has been a contentious one, with fears it would chew up agricultural land and become a Dickensian blight on the picturesque Wrights Creek landscape.
Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt, who instigated the scheme when he was treasurer, gave his assurance sugarcane land loss would be minimal.
He painted a picture of a world-class facility with land beside the Mulgrave Mill housing a new $150 million cogeneration plant which powered the rest of the precinct.
Rail-side loading equipment would allow the area to become a major maintenance hub for the Cairns cruise shipping precinct, freeing up waterfront space in Portsmith for other ventures.
A new road linking the highway to the back of the mill would keep trucks out of town, and a bio-manufacturing plant would be producing biodegradable plastics.
“What industries we might see in the SDA is going to depend on where the interest comes from,” Mr Pitt said.
“I’m particularly keen because Edmonton and Gordonvale have been dormant suburbs of Cairns forever.
“I would love to see more people working closer to where they live.”
The Co-ordinator-General has been in consultation with the council over its claim projected industrial growth is too paltry for the proposed SDA area to become necessary.
It found Cairns Regional Council relied on 2007-2015 take-up rates which included the global financial crisis – a period of unusually low growth for Cairns.
Conversely, the council used the same data as the Coordinator-General when it created its planning scheme.
The council’s modelling found only 85ha of industrial land would be needed by 2036, compared to the State Government’s 155-210ha.
State Development Minister Cameron Dick said Far North Queensland would miss out on jobs if growth forecasts were based on incorrect information.
“It’s very important we get this right,” he said.
“Our work with the council shows that their forecasts for industrial land that they’ve used for the Cairns Plan, and their Infrastructure Plan, are the same as the estimates by the Co-ordinator General,” he said.
“So we’ll be using those forecasts as the evidence as we consider our decision around a State Development Area.”