New dump, trucking rubbish elsewhere loom for Gympie’s rubbish crisis

As rubbish continues to pile up at Gympie’s Bonnick Rd dump and the clock ticks down on its use-by date, the future of where the region’s waste will wind up remains as murky as ever, with seemingly more questions than answers. Here is the latest.

Where will Gympie’s rubbish be dumped in 2024?

It is a multimillion-dollar question facing Gympie Regional Council, and one which seems to still have no clear answers, prompting claims the council has a “crisis” on its hands.

Councillor Bob Fredman labelled the situation as such at last Wednesday’s council meeting as the council debated whether to join in discussion with its Wide Bay Burnett neighbours in finding a solution.

He flagged concerns this latest proposal would be little more than another “talk fest … when we’ve almost run out of tip space”.

The question of how to fix this was still up in the air despite years of exploration and planning, including talk of a “super dump” in the Toolara Forest.

And the clock was still ticking on the service which cost the council $9.8m in the last financial year alone.

Sustainability director Adrian Burns said the Bonnick Rd dump had about 70,000 cu m of space left following 2022’s multiple floods.

Councillor Bob Fredman says Gympie‘s waste services are in crisis with no more than 18 months of space left at Bonnick Rd.

This could be stretched out to serve the region for another year to 18 months, so long as no more natural disasters strike the region.

The ones that had inundated Gympie caused a “spike” in waste, Mr Burns said, and “the team are nervous about the impact of any further flood impacts in the next 12 months”.

An expansion to the city’s dump is in the works to ease the pressure, with $4.3m included in the 2022-23 budget for the work.

Even this was not yet a foregone conclusion, though.

“(The) council does not have approval from the state regulator to commence the eastern cell at Bonnick Rd,” Mr Burns said.

“(The) council is currently finalising the design and associated documentation, and will be submitting this proposal to the Department of Environment and Science in the coming weeks.

Gympie council’s sustainability director Adrian Burns said Bonnick Rd was expected to be full within 18 months.

“The ideal situation will be to get the eastern cell ready so that operations can move to that, and rehab can commence on the current cell.”

Mr Burns said this would improve the dump’s environmental impact.

In the meantime all waste except for landfill remained in the region, he said.

In March 2021 it was revealed the council had reportedly struck a deal with the Fraser Coast Regional Council to truck rubbish up to its tip.

Fraser Coast councillors backed the plan by a 9-2 vote following debate behind closed doors.

However, the agreement seemed to be torpedoed only three days later following claims by Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig and former CEO Shane Gray they were unaware of any such deal between the councils.

“Domestic waste from Cleanaway goes to Bonnick Rd, as do all the transfer station domestic waste bins,” Mr Burns said.

The future of a proposed waste transfer station at Laurenceson Rd remains a mystery despite millions of dollars having reportedly already been put aside for it.

Shipping rubbish to other regions “would only be considered if council could not utilise its landfill options”.

Less clear is the future of a touted $12m transfer station at a site off Monkland’s Laurenceson Rd.

Questions about the progress of this station and whether it was still going ahead were not answered.

Work has not yet begun on it despite it having received $1.2m in State funding in 2020 and $3.5m earmarked in the council’s capital works budget that same year,

Tenders for its construction were advertised in December 2020 and closed in February 2021, the State Government’s QTenders website shows.

It was not the only part of the region’s waste future still murky, either.

Mr Burns said the council had received a grant to investigate a new landfill, and on the back of a motion tabled at last Wednesday’s meeting it would engage in a wider discussion along with the Fraser Coast, Bundaberg, South Burnett and North Burnett councils as to where its waste could wind up.

Possible arrangements at Noosa and the Sunshine Coast are also being explored given their proximity to Gympie.

“The team hopes to find solutions that increase resource recovery, and explore potential cost sharing options that will bring jobs, and keep the cost of waste disposal low as well as see an increased diversion from landfill, reuse of materials and improved environmental outcomes for the region,” Mr Burns said.