Save Eungella pivoting to fight Capricornia Energy Hub after Pioneer-Burdekin flushed

After celebrating the cancellation of Queensland’s biggest pumped hydro in his backyard, the president of the group has called renewables “a foul word” and hinted at the next fight.

Tony Wall and Doug Cannon outside the ALP Queensland State Conference Mackay Entertainment and Convention Centre (MECC) Saturday 3 June 2023 Picture: Michaela Harlow

The president of a group formed to fight Queensland’s biggest green energy project has called renewables “a foul word” and vowed to fight wind farms planned nearby.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli stood up with the LNP’s Nigel Dalton and Glen Kelly in Eungella on Sunday to tell locals the Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro scheme would not be going ahead under his government.

“I wanted to come and tell this beautiful little community in person that they have a future,” Mr Crisafulli said.

“This community was never treated with the respect they deserve. It’s a beautiful part of the world.”

The 5000MW project proposed by Labor was not commercially viable, according to a report from Queensland Hydro, but smaller versions in the same place would have made a return.

Mr Crisafulli has committed to ‘smaller, more manageable’ pumped hydro sites but was unable to answer where they would be, and did not take up the call to release the locations in the next 100 days.

There were more than 40 alternative large-scale pumped hydro sites considered before the government selected Pioneer-Burdekin and Borumba. Picture: Queensland Hydro Study

Doug Cannon has been a spokesman for Save Eungella which has been fighting the project since October 2022, one month after the then-Palaszczuk’s government vow to build the “world’s biggest” pumped hydro in the Pioneer Valley, west of Mackay.

Now Save Eungella is looking at the Capricornia Energy Hub, a smaller-scale proposed pumped hydro site down the road from Pioneer-Burdekin, with wind farms planned to feed into it.

“The people have quite clearly stated their position on not just renewables, but the handling of the government for the past years as a collective,” Mr Cannon said.

“It shows they were not happy.”

He said that while renewables were a shining light “years ago” he believes they now have connotations of being “wasteful” and “destructive”, and doesn’t believe this region is the right place for them.

Queensland premier Steven Miles, Queensland Hydro executive manager Chris Evans, and Labor candidate for Mackay Belinda Hassan with granite samples from the site of the Pioneer Valley Burdekin pumped hydro scheme on August 9. Photo: Zoe Devenport

Mr Cannon was quizzed on how he feels about solar (only acceptable small scale), wind (not recyclable, has issues with them being manufactured overseas).

Instead Mr Cannon pointed to hydrogen and geothermal energy instead as things he is keen on.

Geothermal energy, harnessing the heat of the earth to power turbines, is complicated in Australia by the lack of active volcanoes but there are projects underway.

Hydrogen energy is still yet to be proven economically at scale — and it would still require renewables or another energy source to produce.

Mr Cannon said he would prefer pumped hydro at a smaller scale, using former mine shafts or areas where there is no environmental clearing needed.

Mandy Tenant from Crediton, a leader in the Save Eungella movement, attended the town hall with her young children, who also shared their concerns with then-Premier Steven Miles on April 2. Photo: Fergus Gregg

This masthead asked him if he would like to see coal-fired power plants turned off as soon as possible, once replacement energy sources were available.

“I’m not in a position to say they need to be turned off straight away,” Mr Cannon said.

When asked if he had considered that solar and wind are the fastest ways for Australia to cut its emissions, he said he could only vouch that the wind farms planned nearby were “in the wrong place”.

“It’s politics driving renewables, not the people driving the renewable outcomes,” Mr Cannon said.

The Eungella community were out in force behind the Save Eungella Committee to raise their concerns to then-Premier Steven Miles and Queensland Hydro. Photo: Fergus Gregg

But wasn’t it scientists and engineers that picked Pioneer-Burdekin as the right location?

“The person I’ve spoken to from Queensland hydro who has the valid qualifications to make the assessments said this was a dream location for pumped hydro, and if we didn’t do this we would have to do smaller ones in different locations,” Mr Cannon said.

Asked how he would respond to claims he was a ‘NIMBY’ an anagram for ‘not in my backyard’, a criticism of environmentalists who support projects so long as they’re elsewhere, Mr Cannon said “this isn’t for my personal gain”.

“I could have made quite a profit out of selling up,” he noted.

“I’ve done extensive travel and I moved back to Eungella because I know of its significance.

“If I knew it was in the right location but I was going to make a tidy profit I would be out of here.”

Capricornia Energy Hub did not respond to queries.