Hawker residents reject radioactive waste storage proposal for Wallerberdina Station
Kimba is now in pole position for a radioactive waste storage site, after residents in Hawker rejected the move during a community ballot.
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Flinders Ranges locals have moved to block a radioactive waste dump at Hawker, with 53 per cent of voters rejecting the project in a community ballot.
There were 868 votes cast in the poll, finalised today, representing about 70 per cent of eligible voters.
Flinders Ranges Mayor Peter Slattery believed the result all but ruled out Wallerberdina Station, near Hawker, as a realistic prospect to host the Federal Government’s planned waste site.
“I can’t see that will leave our region in contention,” he said.
The Federal Government is considering building the storage site at the Napandee or Lyndhurst properties near Kimba, or Wallerberdina station near Hawker.
Mr Slattery said the result came as a relief and his community could now “draw a line in the sand” and move on, following division between people on either side of the debate.
“It’s been long and traumatic for years, for everyone involved,” he said.
However, he was surprised that about 30 per cent of locals did not cast a vote, considering the issue’s controversy.
Flinders Local Action Group spokesman Greg Bannon said major concerns had included a lack of detail on factors including where waste would be stored long-term, and how long it would stay at Wallerberdina, which was flagged as a temporary storage site.
“It’s in a flood plain with seismic activity and the Adnyamathanha people have strongly said they don’t want that waste on their traditional lands,” Mr Bannon said.
The result places Kimba in pole position to host the waste facility.
During a similar vote in that community last month, about 62 per cent of respondents supported a plan to host the site.
However, the area’s Barngarla community also hosted its own vote. All of the 83 Barngarla members who voted rejected the proposal, but more than 120 native-title holders did not take part.
Australian Conservation Foundation nuclear free campaigner Dave Sweeney said the result was “a clear rejection of the federal waste plan”.
“(Resources) Minister Matt Canavan has repeatedly committed to not impose any federal facility on an unwilling community and has spoken of the essential need for ‘broad community support’,” Mr Sweeney said.
“Minister Canavan should now formally remove the Flinders Ranges region from any further Federal Government consideration or pressure around radioactive waste”.
The Australian Conservation Foundation led a petition opposing the new dump in SA, which was signed by more than 5000 people.
Wallerberdina was nominated as a potential site by owners Philip Speakman and former Liberal party state president Grant Chapman.
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About 45 people would work at the chosen radioactive waste site, and its host community is set to receive a funding package totalling $31 million.
Mr Chapman said he did not believe the community ballot would immediately rule out his property.
“It’s a matter for the department and the minister to make a decision,” Mr Chapman said.
“It’s one of the factors they said they’d consider.
“The project has enormous flow on benefits in terms of capital funds for the community and employment generated.”