SUMMARY as at early December 2024
For the last two months the Magnetic Island community has been debating a Townsville City Council proposal to dump dredge spoil excavated from the Nelly Bay marina and canal estate onto Council-owned acreage land at Kelly St, Nelly Bay. Earthworks have been commenced and detailed plans have been submitted to various agencies for approval. The dredged material is presumed to contain, amongst other things, acid-sulphate soils, which are proposed to be remediated by the application of "agricultural lime” within an earth-walled containment enclosure. Council proposes that the remediated product can then be distributed around the island as construction fill.
After considering the various assessment documents and listening to the Mayor, Troy Thompson, explain at a MIRRA meeting that he would respond to all communications directed to his office, the executive of MINCA decided to raise our concerns with him. Our letter was acknowledged but after a month nothing had happened so we wrote again. Days later the Mayor was suspended from office for 12 months, leaving the dredging issue in limbo. We are currently engaging in direct correspondence with the newly appointed Acting Mayor and councillors and await their response/s. In the meantime we are publishing our first letters here to give the general public some appreciation of the issues we are raising.
Charlie McColl
Vice President
Initial Letter to Mayor Troy Thompson: 15 October 2024
15 October 2024
Dear Mayor (Thompson)
You may recall that I approached you after a MIRRA candidate forum prior to the mayoral election and handed you a booklet published by MINCA about the World Heritage values of Yunbenun / Magnetic Island. I followed up at a regular MIRRA meeting after your election with a question about the TCC proposal to create a dredge spoil dump and remediation facility at Kelly Street in Nelly Bay.
We are concerned that in a rush to secure a convenient site and avoid potentially costly alternative locations or logistical complexities, Council may be overlooking a critical feature of Magnetic Island’s geographical, constitutional and legal setting: since 1981, Magnetic Island, like all the hundreds of islands on the Great Barrier Reef, has been placed on the World Heritage list. That is, the land area of Magnetic Island itself contributes to the Outstanding Universal Values of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area - as outlined in the MINCA publication I gave you, and which has been distributed to all households on the Island.
One of the reasons MINCA published the booklet is that for many years some local residents, and even the previous mayor and some of her staff, have argued that the World Heritage listing only applies to the GBR Marine Park (ie. the water area surrounding the Island) and Magnetic Island National Park, but not to the rest of the island. Many times they have been proven categorically wrong, including by the relevant Federal Minister.
I note that the Amended Dredge Management Plan for the proposed Kelly Street dredge spoil dump states that "the project does not trigger a referral under the EPBC Act". Presumably that is because the Council or its consultants still insist that Magnetic Island is NOT part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area? It could be an expensive and embarrassing mistake for Council to continue to proceed further with the Kelly Street dumping proposal if it has not received appropriate legal advice.
It is possible that TCC thinks it has no choice but to dump and remediate the 10,000 tonnes of dredge spoil somewhere on Magnetic Island. Yet there is a way of avoiding bringing the spoil onshore at all. The Townsville Port Expansion Project has recently completed widening and deepening the Cleveland Bay shipping channel - all the spoil produced was taken in barges to the reclaim area next to the Port. Since the State of Queensland approved and funded the Nelly Bay harbour and marina construction more than 20 years ago, why is Council offering to dump polluted spoil from dredging this harbour on World Heritage-listed Magnetic Island, when there is a capacious, taxpayer-funded, purpose-built and currently functioning offloading facility at the Townsville Port?
Please try to ‘take the community with you’ on this important project. There has been very little community consultation so far so we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with you as soon as possible to help ensure the best long-term outcome for our beautiful Island, Townsville's "jewel in the Crown".
Charlie McColl
Vice President
MINCA
Dear Mayor (Thompson)
You may recall that I approached you after a MIRRA candidate forum prior to the mayoral election and handed you a booklet published by MINCA about the World Heritage values of Yunbenun / Magnetic Island. I followed up at a regular MIRRA meeting after your election with a question about the TCC proposal to create a dredge spoil dump and remediation facility at Kelly Street in Nelly Bay.
We are concerned that in a rush to secure a convenient site and avoid potentially costly alternative locations or logistical complexities, Council may be overlooking a critical feature of Magnetic Island’s geographical, constitutional and legal setting: since 1981, Magnetic Island, like all the hundreds of islands on the Great Barrier Reef, has been placed on the World Heritage list. That is, the land area of Magnetic Island itself contributes to the Outstanding Universal Values of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area - as outlined in the MINCA publication I gave you, and which has been distributed to all households on the Island.
One of the reasons MINCA published the booklet is that for many years some local residents, and even the previous mayor and some of her staff, have argued that the World Heritage listing only applies to the GBR Marine Park (ie. the water area surrounding the Island) and Magnetic Island National Park, but not to the rest of the island. Many times they have been proven categorically wrong, including by the relevant Federal Minister.
I note that the Amended Dredge Management Plan for the proposed Kelly Street dredge spoil dump states that "the project does not trigger a referral under the EPBC Act". Presumably that is because the Council or its consultants still insist that Magnetic Island is NOT part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area? It could be an expensive and embarrassing mistake for Council to continue to proceed further with the Kelly Street dumping proposal if it has not received appropriate legal advice.
It is possible that TCC thinks it has no choice but to dump and remediate the 10,000 tonnes of dredge spoil somewhere on Magnetic Island. Yet there is a way of avoiding bringing the spoil onshore at all. The Townsville Port Expansion Project has recently completed widening and deepening the Cleveland Bay shipping channel - all the spoil produced was taken in barges to the reclaim area next to the Port. Since the State of Queensland approved and funded the Nelly Bay harbour and marina construction more than 20 years ago, why is Council offering to dump polluted spoil from dredging this harbour on World Heritage-listed Magnetic Island, when there is a capacious, taxpayer-funded, purpose-built and currently functioning offloading facility at the Townsville Port?
Please try to ‘take the community with you’ on this important project. There has been very little community consultation so far so we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with you as soon as possible to help ensure the best long-term outcome for our beautiful Island, Townsville's "jewel in the Crown".
Charlie McColl
Vice President
MINCA
Follow up Letter to Mayor Troy Thompson: 18 November 2024
