NEWS From previous page Publicly-available information aside, Elbow Valley landholders adjoining Cherrabah Resort and the general public were given no prior notice the commercial water mining application at Cherrabah was due to go to a vote at the December 2019 meeting. A new report commissioned by the owners of Cherrabah on the water extraction plan was also excluded from the December meeting agenda. The application was kept from the public and Cherrabah neighbours ahead of the December 2019 meeting, with Cherrabah's owners using legal loopholes to prevent public notification. The normal requirement for such an application would be for adjoining neighbours to receive written notification, public signage put in place, advertisement in local media undertaken and for the full application to be placed on public display at the council's Warwick offices for inspection. As the Ma brothers had withdrawn their original application for the water extraction operation in December of 2018 before councillors could vote on it - an application council officers had then recommended be refused - the original application was still "current", as no council vote had taken place in 2018. Documents on the council website show three extensions of the "decision-making period" were granted by the council to the Ma brothers during 2019, including one leading right up to Christmas Eve last year. The extensions also meant Elbow Valley neighbours could not lodge fresh formal objections to the "impact" level application. Instead, council officers simply included in their December 2019 report to councillors the original objection submissions lodged by neighbours back in 2018. But crucially, the extensions and lack of public notification also meant neighbouring property owners had next to no opportunity to view the new report commissioned by the Ma brothers in 2019 which claims the water extraction operation will have no impact on underground water on surrounding properties. The report - finalised by consultants Gilbert and Sutherland in October 2019 - was excluded from the December 2019 public council agenda and is instead buried on the council website in the 'online services' section - along with the 'extension' documents where members of the public could not reasonably be expected to access the report.
SPANNER IN THE WORKS? The Ma brothers are set to challenge certain approval conditions set by the council, understood to be related to a council requirement to complete a sealed 5.5 metre road widening and drainage of Keoghs Road to the intersection with O'Deas Road. It is unclear at this time if the road condition - which would be met at the Ma brothers' expense - would render the water extraction proposal economically unviable. What is known is that the councillors who voted in favour of the application also voted in favour of letting the Ma brothers off with the full 'infrastructure charges' that would normally apply to an 'extractive industry' for road upgrades. In other words, had the application been for a gravel quarry or similar use - with associated truck movements higher charges would have applied. The Ma brothers have a least another month to formally request the council amend the road condition, and any others with which the brothers disagree. The Free Times has sought comment from the Ma brothers on their challenge to the council's conditions but none was freetimes.com.au
received by time of printing this week. Council conditions - including road upgrades and environmental conditions related to the rare spotted-tail quoll - placed on a previous approval in 2010 for a megaresort planned by the Ma brothers for Cherrabah may have played a part in their decision to later shelve the plan. Adjoining property owners at Elbow Valley, with limited financial ability to mount a full-scale legal case against the Cherrabah approval, are hoping the road condition may be enough to force the Ma brothers to shelve this plan, too.
HOW THEY VOTED... Voting in favour of the Cherrabah water mining plan at the December 2019 council meeting were Mayor Tracy Dobie, Deputy Mayor Jo McNally and Councillors Rod Kelly, Sheryl Windle and Neil Meiklejohn. Voting "no" were Councillors Vic Pennisi, Cameron Gow and Yve Stocks. Cr Marika McNichol was absent from the meeting due to a bushfire threatening property she owns in the Mount Lindesay area. Cr McNichol later told the Free Times had she been at the December meeting she would have voted "no" to the proposal, but also took the line that the council has no say over Stategranted water entitlements and uses. Mayor Tracy Dobie has since maintained the 'official' council line that the application before councillors related only to the location of the pumping infrastructure required for the water extraction and other "planning" issues such as truck movements on and off the site. Cr Neil Meiklejohn - who is not running again for office at the council election in March this year - told the meeting the application was "not about water". Deputy Mayor Jo McNally told the meeting the council was powerless to stop the private extraction and commercial sale of water from the Southern Downs and Granite Belt and that it is "happening all over the region". She praised the Ma brothers for "doing the right thing" and applying for council approval, somewhat at odds with her stance that the council has no jurisdiction over State-granted water entitlements. Crs Pennisi, Gow and Stocks all pointed to the apparent conflict between approval of the Cherrabah plan and the current drought, with Cr Stocks saying she found it "very ironic" that such a plan would be approved as the council - with state funding of $800,000 per month - was about to commence fullscale carting of drinking water to Stanthorpe from the council's Connolly Dam. Under the Queensland Water Act the state government can revoke water licences under "emergency provisions" - with many in the area confident the present drought qualifies as an "emergency".
The council approval will be current for the next four years. The Ma brothers who own Cherrabah are challenging conditions of the council approval, with neighbours hopeful this may render the water mining plan unfeasible. They say they would struggle to fund a legal challenge.
Consultants reports have conflicting conclusions on the long-term viability of commercial water extraction on Cherrabah. Neighbours say the council should have applied a precautionary approach in the current drought, and are not convinced the operation would not affect their own water supplies.
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DIFFERENT STROKES? The "no" votes of Councillors Vic Pennisi, Cameron Gow and Yve Stocks notwithstanding, the council's approval of the Cherrabah water operation is in contrast to the hard line the council takes on outdoor music festivals. In August last year all councillors voted to refuse a permit for the 'Bohemian Beatfreaks' music and arts festival which was proposed to be held at Cherrabah in November 2019. The refusal was on the basis of public safety concerns - and advice on those lines from the Queensland Police - following the non-suspicious deaths of two people, understood to be substance-related, at a previous music festival at Cherrabah run by the same operators, 'Rabbits Eat Lettuce'. ● Continued next page
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