Whitsunday council rejects Delta truck depot

An application to build a new transport depot on agricultural land in the Whitsundays has been met with fierce claims it would cause “severe disruption” to families and create “unsafe” traffic levels.

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An application to build a new transport depot on agricultural land in the Whitsundays has been met with fierce claims it would cause “severe disruption” to families and create “unsafe” traffic levels.

KHJ Group had applied to WRC to build a 24/7 depot at Lot 3, Lauriston St in Delta where train drivers would go each day to “obtain a crew care and travel to their train to operate”.

A number of submissions were made since the September 2021 application including from Bowen residents Robyn Fischer, Peter Bell, and Keith and Shirley Jurgens, as well as the Bowen Gumlu Growers Association.

BGGA CEO Ry Collins said the proposed depot near the entrance of Lauriston St would add to an already “dangerous” level of traffic with B-double trucks already using the single way in, single way out street to access EE Muir and Sons, Liberty Oil truck station, Richard’s Refrigerated Transport, Visy packaging and other sites.

He said the street was used to access more than 40 farming families’ and businesses’ properties, with the depot “presumably” adding an extra 108 vehicles a day.

Mr and Mrs Jurgens said they had owned the neighbouring lot for 46 years, arguing developers had continually encroached onto prime agricultural land despite the rural zoning under the 2017 Whitsunday Region Planning Scheme.

“It is vitally important to maintain primary production lands,” they said in their submission.

“The soil in the area is rich and alluvial and conducive to successful crop(s).”

They further argued the depot would cause “severe disruption” to residents with its proposed 24/7 operation.

The council officially rejected the application on May 16 on findings which included an “unacceptable (traffic) impact” at the intersection of Lauriston St and the Bruce Highway, “community concerns”, and its inappropriateness against the rural zoning.

The developer, should they choose to, can appeal to a tribunal or the Planning and Environment Court against the decision.

Two days before the council rejected the depot, it approved an application to install fuel bowsers on Kathryn Therese Byer’s 9797 sqm industrial lot at 17 Bowen Developmental Rd in Bowen.

“The truck service station will not involve any retailing of goods,” documents state, adding the development would diversify the existing industrial lot to take “advantage” of a key transport junction.