Hinchinbrook: what next?
By Virginia Young
The Wilderness Society, together with a coalition of local and national environment groups, is leading a vigorous campaign to stop development of a large-scale resort, real estate subdivision and marina at Port Hinchinbrook, Queensland. The development threatens the wilderness values of nearby Hinchinbrook Island, places the endangered dugong and other rare and endangered species at greater risk and has the potential to damage other World Heritage values.
Do we want this beautiful place to become another stretch of our coastline covered in tar, concrete and manicured gardens?
This development is the wrong project in the wrong place at the wrong time. Successive governments that have failed to protect this special place and thereby failed all Australians.
There has never been an environmental impact statement prepared for Port Hinchinbrook. For a project which will carve into the very fabric of a natural wonderland, this is a national disgrace.
There have been a lot of scientific opinions voiced and good scientific studies placed on record. Every report has expressed some form of concern about the project, but governmental attempts to address these concerns are already failing.
Apart from protecting the beauty and wildness of the region, other crucial environmental concerns include:
The endangered dugong. Along the 2000-kilometre coast from Cooktown to Hervey Bay, the Hinchinbrook region is the only stronghold for the dugong, the only place where numbers are not in decline. It may be that this is a refuge for dugongs forced to move from other more dangerous or damaged places.
This gentle mammal is being driven to extinction by human activity — caught in gill nets, run down by boats and perhaps so disturbed by water traffic that it fails to breed. (Gill nets are now banned in the region, but the speed limit has been lifted in the Hinchinbrook Channel and, if the marina is completed, water traffic will dramatically increase.)
Mahogany gliders. The forest habitat suitable for the endangered mahogany glider has been cleared from the Port Hinchinbrook site. Other endangered species in the area include turtles, beach stone curlews and Irrawaddy River dolphins.
Mangroves and foreshore stability. The nearby town of Cardwell is suffering beach erosion. The entire foreshore cleared by the developer should be restored. Oyster Point was once an island before being stabilised and "created" by mangroves; once you've removed the mangroves, you've unravelled the coast.
Seagrasses. Seagrasses are light dependent, and it is unclear how great a decrease in light they can tolerate, or for how long. Dredging will increase turbidity in the Hinchinbrook Channel.
Acid sulphate water. Subsoil brought into contact with air undergoes a chemical change and, in solution, is converted into light sulphuric acid. It is expensive to treat and is held in spoil ponds. The material in the spoil ponds on site has been recorded at a highly acidic pH3. Leakages into the surrounding environment are known to have occurred.
Organisms in immediate contact with this material are killed and nearby fish life damaged. Long-term studies of the reef and food chain by Dr Bob Morris have established that acid sulphate discharges ultimately result in heavy metal accumulation on the reef, which in turn enters the food chain.
Cardwell Properties has applied for an increase in the number of beds at the resort — from 1500 to 1800 — and for an additional 60 hectares of shore land, which includes mangroves and mahogany glider habitat. If approved, this would result in a 50% increase in the land being reshaped, manicured and converted to the developer's image.
Further real estate subdivisions have also been applied for.
To implement these plans, which are in addition to those already approved by the Queensland and federal governments, the company has asked for a waiver of environmental impact assessment requirements.
Some big questions remain unanswered.
Where, for example, will the resort get its fresh water? Cardwell is already short of water, and the only nearby place to build a dam would be in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area!
To be economically viable, the resort will need to attract a very large number of guests. How will they get there? Will the developer seek to build an airport, as he previously did for Hamilton Island?
There remain many decision points which could stymie this project. The Friends of Hinchinbrook have appealed to the High Court, seeking to overturn Senator Hill's approval of the development; there is strong pressure for a full EIS that would look at the cumulative impact of clearance and construction; and if the political climate changes, the developer could find ongoing monitoring of the site much more rigorous.
Many of us believe that the chances of the project "getting off the ground" are remote. Consultants D.A. Dansfield and Company draw attention to the failure of successive large, so-called "integrated resorts" elsewhere on the Queensland coast. The developer is saying publicly he would be prepared to sell his land — and the entire project — at cost. We are looking at ways of achieving this as a matter of urgency.