Cassowary Coast Regional Council

The last few days have seen the State Government promise $15.2 million for a Sewerage System for Cardwell and $37.5 million for the Schools of Tomorrow Program to relocate Innisfail State High School from its existing site to the TAFE site.

Both initiatives are welcomed by the Cassowary Coast Regional Council.

The Cardwell Sewerage System will require Council to contribute some $6million. This will be difficult to find and the likely course of action will be for Council to borrow the money, as for the Mission Beach Sewerage System. The annual costs of maintaining the new Cardwell system will exceed the maximum $570 sewerage charge that can presently be levied and consequently there will, unavoidably, need to be an additional charge borne each year by all ratepayers in the Region.

Council is pleased to receive the funding for this much needed infrastructure, but it will place additional strain on our resources and there is still of course the issue of the sewerage works needed for Innisfail. Council will endeavour to do both and this should be achievable.

The High School relocation will more fully utilise the existing TAFE site and provide the school community with a state of the art facility. The ability to readily offer high school students entry into vocational qualifications must improve outcomes for our young people.

The three issues of concern for Council are:-

1. The increased traffic on the Geraldton Bridge, opposite the hospital. A detailed traffic study of vehicles using this bridge has determined that there is capacity for the increased traffic flow. My own observations during peak hours support this view.
2. The need for sewerage infrastructure. This is readily achievable in conjunction with the subdivisions proposed for the area and will require a State Government contribution, no different to what would apply to a private developer.
3. The third issue is more complicated. Natural justice requires that whatever is done with a parcel of land should not impinge on the land held by others. This principle is fundamental to our planning policies. The increased building site cover brought by the relocation could impinge on the flood levels of adjoining properties. The hydrology studies indicate that in a 100 year flood event there could be minor effects (of some 10mm-30mm increased flood heights) on adjoining properties. As readers will appreciate the one in 100 year flood is an extreme event and water height differences of a few millimetres would be marginal. Also we need to know how accurate these hydrology models are, especially given that every flood event is different. The Government and the school are investigating increasing the retention area on site and this could have an added benefit of being a large playing field, designed to be underwater during extreme floods. Such a variation could mitigate the flood’s effects. In any event, given the vagaries of modelling and the strict interpretation of planning schemes, it is my opinion that this is precisely the sort of valuable community scheme that should be facilitated by Ministerial designation if necessary.

The Agent Orange scare unfortunately received nationwide, even international, coverage last week. We are still waiting for information from Defence and results from the Environment Protection Agency testing. Council is considering independent testing of the soil and water from the Gregory Falls area, notwithstanding that the issue may now be defused. The sensationalist headline banner on the front page of the Sydney newspaper and the two page article inside were certainly not the sort of publicity this area needs. The next edition of the same paper, a week later, carried these few words “Correction ‘Agent Orange Town’ said that deaths from cancer in Innisfail were 10 times the Queensland average. Queensland Health says that the rate of death from cancer in the Innisfail area is not significantly higher than the rest of Queensland”. The record has been set straight, shame about the damage!

Cr Bill Shannon
Mayor