Cordwell Resources to take on Noosa Shire Council in Planning and Environment Court

The owners of a Noosa quarry will fight an order to remove what is alleged to be an unapproved development on the site.

The Kin Kin quarry.

The owners of a Noosa quarry have sought to appeal an order demanding they remove an alleged unapproved screening plant.

The court documents stated the quarry at Kin Kin, operated by Cordwell Resources, was issued with a notice from the Noosa Council in January this year, notifying them a development on the site was to be removed.

“The enforcement notice prescribed certain actions to be taken as to the removal of the plant in issue, or relocation of it to what is described as the “approved fixed plant area” identified,” the notice stated.

The development referred to is described in the documents as a “fixed plant” screener used in the production of manufactured sand, which has been built outside the approved areas of the quarry.

A B-Double used to cart material from Kin Kin quarry.

Cordwell Resources lodged an appeal to the order on the basis that the development is not a “fixed plant” and the current management plan does not give definite requirements.

“The Approved Quarry Management Plan does not provide definite structural requirements to enable flexibility and to ensure that advances in technology or science relating to quarrying or environmental management, may be utilised during the development of the quarry,” the documents stated.

The company will also argue the plant is necessary in the “reduction of noise, dust and waste from the quarry”.

Judge Gary Long ordered four environmental and town planning experts be granted access to the quarry to continue investigations into the “fixed plant”.

“The proposed inspection is to be by each of the experts engaged by the Respondent for the appeal, being a town planner, an engineer specialising in acoustics, air quality and environmental management, a geologist with extensive experience in the quarrying industry and an expert in traffic and vehicle movement issues,” he said.

Cordwell Resources have been contacted for comment.