Tuchekoi farmer, developer Ian Allen fined $30k quarry environment breaches

A Queensland quarry owner, beef cattle farmer and developer has been sentenced in court after run-off from his property put a major flood-prone river at risk of environmental harm.

Ian Allen (inset) pleaded guilty to breaching environment protection orders and contravening an environmental authority, breaches which Gympie Magistrates Court was told risked harming the Mary Valley during major flood events. he was fined $30,000.

A Tuchekoi businessman and quarry owner has been slugged $30,000 over multiple environmental order breaches which risked damaging the flood-prone Mary River.

Ian Allen appeared in Gympie Magistrates Court Tuesday morning, prosecuted by the Department of Environment and Science of failing to adhere to environmental requirements between March 31, 2020, and February 9, 2021.

He pleaded guilty to three contraventions of protection orders under the Environmental Protection Act, and one count of contravening a condition of an environmental authority.

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Gympie Magistrates Court was told Allen was required to develop a protection plan to prevent scouring the quarry pit’s banks during a major flood event, which he failed to do.

Required stormwater and sediment plans had not been properly implemented in line with qualified designs, too.

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Ian Allen, 69 of Tuchekoi, was fined $30,000 in Gympie Magistrates Court for breaching environmental protection orders.

Further, DES site inspections and drone surveys found he had not maintained the correct slope on an internal wall of an excavation pit.

This increased the risk of riverbank erosion and discharge of sediment into the river during a major flood.

Allen’s lawyer Chris Anderson said his client had spent almost $210,000 in remediation work to address the issues.

“He has never shirked his responsibilities here,” Mr Anderson said.

Allen had employed his son as a manager, Mr Anderson said, but “unfortunately it might have been a little bit too much”.

“He accepts the buck ultimately stops with him,” Mr Anderson said.

Gympie Magistrates Court was told Ian Allen failed to correctly implement stormwater and sediment plans,

The 69-year-old, who also worked as a beef cattle farmer and developer, “has had to pull money from other accounts to cover … the losses”.

Mr Allen had no previous history, criminal or otherwise.

Magistrate Chris Callaghan said the sediment ended up in tributaries joining the Mary River and “that can harm the environment”.

“Environmental offences are serious,” Mr Callaghan said.

“People choose not to comply.

“If everyone just ignored the effects … the environment suffers greatly.”

Along with the fine, Mr Allen was ordered to pay $3000 in legal costs and $1735 in investigation costs.

No conviction was recorded.