Traveston debacle kills appetite for new SEQ dam near Gympie

Looming water security issues in Southeast Queensland have put dams back on the agenda, but engineers and politicians might need to look anywhere else but the Gympie region.

Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee project officer Brad Wedlock says any water woes in the state's southeast corner could be solved with existing infrastructure and water conservation, and not a new dam - which would not go down well with Gympie residents either after the Traveston debacle.

Anyone planning to build a new dam for Southeast Queensland water security should look anywhere but the Gympie region after the Traveston dam debacle poisoned that well among residents and leaders.

Fourteen years after the dam was cancelled, the spectre of a new dam was raised in September amid concerns about the long term sustainability of Southeast Queensland’s water supply.

Water Minister Glenn Butcher flagged the need for a new water source, and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said he was “agnostic about whether it’s a dam, desalination or recycled water”.

Internal polling commissioned by Seqwater recently revealed almost 70 per cent of Queenslanders were “comfortable” drinking recycled water.

Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee project officer Brad Wedlock said a dam was off the table.

Recycled water and the 15-year-old western water grid were more than enough to keep the southeast corner’s taps running, he said.

Queensland Water Minister Glenn Butcher has said a new water source is likely needed for the rapidly growing southeast corner. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

Even if they were not, a new dam in the region was a non-starter for several reasons.

One was the lack of suitable sites.

Another was the lack of any benefit Gympie would get if it put its hand up as Brisbane and its surrounds would be the priority.

Not that the public would ever let it get that far given that the proposed Traveston Dam was toppled by public protest and outcry.

The proposed 153,000ML Traveston dam, pitched by the state government as a solution to Queensland’s water woes at the height the millenium drought, would have inundated parts of the Mary Valley stretching across Amamoor and Kandanga if it had gone ahead.

The public - and The Gympie Times - had other ideas, and they won the battle.

The ripples from the fallout continue to be felt almost 15 years later.

A 153,000ML dam proposed at Traveston in 2006 was torpedoed in 2009 on the back of an extraordinary public campaign against the plan, which would have inundated much of the Mary Valley. Photo: Rowena Robertson

Mr Wedlock said the public response to a new dam proposal was unlikely to surprise.

“I think you know the answer to that, but I don’t think it would get to that point,” he said.

Gympie Music Muster chairman Greg Cavanagh said he was “not too concerned about it”.

The Amamoor State Forest land home to the music festival for decades has been touted in the past as a possible alternative dam site.

Mr Cavanagh was unsure “how good a dam site it was anyway” and the festival’s immense popularity would likely result in any proposal being crushed before it got off the ground.

Gympie LNP MP Tony Perrett extended that view further, saying experts would find more than just the Muster site and its immediate surrounds wanting.

MRCCC project officer Brad Wedlock says the community response to any new dam proposals in the Gympie region would not surprise, and existing infrastructure and lessons learned in the millenium drought would provide a better solution to water worries in Southeast Queensland.

“I am not aware of anywhere in the Gympie electorate which would be suitable for urban water storage for the southeast corner,” Mr Perrett said.

The track record so far did not inspire confidence if one did exist,he said.

“We know the havoc wreaked on the Gympie region from the debacle of the failed Traveston dam,” Mr Perrett said.

“The fiasco cost Queensland taxpayers half a billion dollars in losses.”

Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig said any project should be judged “on its merits”.

Repeating history would not go down well.

“We certainly don’t need another Traveston dam debacle; the project would need to withstand independent scrutiny and ensure the environment isn’t the loser,” Mr Hartwig said.

Mr Wedlock said the solution to any water supply worries in the southeast would involve relying by existing infrastructure and lessons already learned.

He said water restrictions introduced to combat the millenium drought had cut the average daily personal usage from about 300L at the time to around 200L now.

Mr Wedlock said if consumption dropped again to about 150L-180L it would “extend the water supply for years” and put an end to any need for another dam.

“You can go for years without rain if you keep dropping consumption,” he said.