Development threat for brew with a view
TROUBLE is brewing in Smithfield with a local beer maker launching a campaign to block moves to replace sweeping cane fields behind his business with industrial sheds.
Macalister Brewing Company owner Rob Callin has spent his family savings to establish the microbrewery and fears it will be ruined if an industrial park is built on its doorstep.
“We chose our site and signed a 10-year lease based on the fact that the land behind us was zoned rural,” he said.
“We asked council for advice and they said it shouldn’t be built for another 30 years because it’s below the Q100 (one-in-100-year flood) level.
“This has become a meeting place for local people, a real social pub for Smithfield that just wasn’t here before. It would be a crying shame to have a bunch of industrial sheds right behind the brewery.”
Mr Callin has lodged a submission against Brisbanebased developer Eljasie’s plan to create a 22-lot mixed-use industrial precinct on land east of Mt Milman Dr and directly behind the microbrewery, which currently overlooks cane fields.
The development made headlines in September when the Queensland Government published the route for its $152 million Smithfield bypass, which reduced the size of the proposed subdivision.
An application to Cairns Regional Council calls for the land to be rezoned from agricultural to mixed-use to allow the project to go ahead.
It says Smithfield has long been identified as the council’s preferred location for retail, commercial, light and service industry uses.
“(It) would not only service the needs of residents of the Northern Beaches of Cairns, but would also provide employment opportunities for those residents and thus reduce their reliance upon the Cairns inner city area to cater to these demands,” it says.
Mr Callin has already gathered more than 1000 signatures from residents and customers opposing the development and plans to lodge them with the council before public consultation ends on April 19.
“That has all come from word of mouth,” he said.
“It wasn’t until (Thursday) that we put anything on social media about it.” His submission says the location and aspect of the premises was one of the key factors in choosing where to build the brewery.
“If there were tilt-slab sheds at the back of the building they would not have chosen the site,” it says. “Council officers advised that the site to the rear of the building is zoned rural and under the one-in-100-year flood, is not expected to be built on in 30 years.
“Concerns are raised regarding the ability to mitigate impacts of flooding on this site and the flow-on effects to adjoining properties, such as the microbrewery.”
Consultancy company RPS, acting for the developer, has been asked to comment.