Mackay Port Authority Dredging Project gets the green light Article first published on Tuesday, 12 August 2003 @ 4:09:25 PM

Mackay Port Authority is about to embark on a multi-million dollar expansion program that’ll offer a helping hand to the region’s struggling sugar industry and open the door for additional industrial development opportunities at the port.


The Mackay Port Authority chairman John Taylor discusses plans for Bedford’s Paddock with Yuibera representative Tony Irelandes

The MPA Board is supporting a 10 million dollar dredging project that will deepen the Mackay port basin by an additional one and half metres to allow the huge 65 000 dwt PANAMAX bulk carriers to load more sugar, destined for our overseas trading partners. The project will be subject to a comprehensive business study.

The virgin material removed from the sea floor will be deposited in a bunded land fill site on the port’s western land, known as Bedford’s Paddock.

The Bedford’s Paddock project has been the subject to extensive community consultation, rigorous scientific studies and detailed review by the port’s Community Reference Group (CRG).

The CRG comprises a wide cross-section of community organizations, environmental groups, business leaders, government agencies and port users.

In June, Community Reference Group members examined three development proposals for Bedford’s Paddock and voted to support an option known as Scenario 2.

This option called for 50 hectares of the 186 hectare paddock to be filled and developed subject to a wide range of offsets and approvals from a number of Government agencies such as the State’s conservation watchdog -- the Environmental Protection Agency.

The recommendation that flowed from the CRG has now been adopted by the MPA Board.

Mackay Port Authority chairman John Taylor said the land would be considered as a possible storage site for shale oil and methanol.

“These projects might not come on line for some years until the port access corridor is completed, but it’s important the MPA secures this strategic land for future development,” he said.

“In the long term it will mean more jobs for Mackay families and new capital that will help Mackay’s economy – and the Queensland economy -- to continue to grow and prosper.”

The traditional owners of the land, the Yuibera People, have put their support behind the project.