Grantham quarry owners seek public apology

The clearing of a wealthy family wrongly blamed over 12 flood deaths in Grantham has sparked calls for a public ­apology.

Brothers L-R John and Denis Wagner , happy at the outcome of the The Grantham Floods Commission of Inquiry by Commissioner Walter Sofronoff , stating their quarry played no significant role in the deadly Grantham floods , outside their business in Toowoomba , West of Brisbane.

The clearing by a formal inquiry yesterday of a wealthy family wrongly blamed over 12 flood deaths and accused of a cover-up in the Queensland town of Grantham has sparked calls for a public ­apology.

Denis Wagner told The Australian yesterday that he and his family believed 2GB broadcaster Alan Jones, and several of his ­informants, had gone too far in an on-air campaign and they should say sorry.

A royal commission-style ­inquiry paid tribute in its final ­report to the bravery and dedication of flood survivors who had campaigned relentlessly for an exhaustive probe into the disaster on January 10, 2011.

As foreshadowed by The Australian last month, the inquiry has cleared the Wagner family of damaging and wrong claims they had caused the tragedy with their Grantham quarry, and corruptly covered it up. Inquiry head ­Walter Sofronoff QC, who handed his final report into the floods at Grantham, west of Brisbane, to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, found the torrent was not made any worse by the ­Wagner family’s quarry and sand plant near the town.

Mr Sofronoff said any person who properly considered the final report and the evidence of the witnesses and the hydrology experts “must conclude that the flood of 10 January, 2011, was a natural ­disaster and that no human agency caused it or could ever have prevented it … That is the heart of the matter and it cannot but affect the meaning and the significance that each person will now attribute to the loss and pain which the flood has brought.

“What that meaning and significance is for each survivor is an exceptionally personal matter — and, for some, it may take ­patience over a lifetime to reach.”

In commending the survivors, Mr Sofronoff described how they “strived for four years to bring to pass an ­inquiry like this and then who themselves went on to furnish the indispensable primary information about what happened; without this, there could have been nothing.”

The Wagner family was found to have done nothing wrong and to have been subjected to “mis­information” in certain sections of the media.

Mr Sofronoff stressed there had been no cover-up, adding that the Wagners were “unjustly blamed by some people and I think they were viciously blamed by some ­elements of the media”.

He said the inquiry had been worth the $2.5 million cost because the community had been destroyed and suffered major loss of life, and residents had been left “extremely upset, extremely angry” about what had happened and then not had their concerns fully heard.

Grantham residents yesterday handed Mr Sofronoff flowers and applauded him for the way he had conducted the inquiry.

Mr Wagner said the inquiry had been necessary to allow an opportunity for the people of Grantham to have their concerns fully tested by experts and their stories told, “but I think that unfortunately the community were led along by a few people who had an axe to grind for other reasons, and they painted quite an untrue picture of what really happened”.

“Alan Jones is against coal-seam gas and coalmining, and he thinks we are part of that industry. He blamed us for the deaths of 12 people.

“For the damage done to our community, the damage done to us as a family and to our business, he should hang his head in shame. It has caused a lot of stress. We are still considering our legal options.”

Jones said late yesterday that he intended to read the final report as soon as possible, adding: “I will then comment accordingly.”

The Wagner family’s lawyer told the inquiry Jones had falsely claimed there was a conspiracy and corruption that involved police, former premier Anna Bligh, and the first commission of inquiry, headed by Catherine Holmes, now the state’s chief justice.

Mr Sofronoff found: “The spread of misinformation about the effect of the quarry on the flooding has been, and is, a matter of grave concern to me.”

The former Queensland solicitor-general concluded that the flooding had been caused by a rare rainfall event that would happen again in the low-lying area with potentially similar destructive consequences.

“The flooding of Grantham was not caused by either the Grantham quarry, or the Grantham sand plant taken as a whole, or the railway line that passed through Grantham,’’ he said in the report. “The most likely effect of the Grantham quarry was to delay the flooding of Grantham for an insignificant period up to a very few minutes. Neither the existence nor breach of the Grantham quarry caused the flooding of Grantham. The breach of the Grantham quarry did not have implications for the evacuation of Grantham.”

Ms Palaszczuk established the inquiry in May to investigate concerns of locals over the quarry’s role.

“I hope that this inquiry does give some closure to the people and the families that went through this horrific ordeal. We know that a lot of people went through perhaps the most terrible experience of their lives,’’ she said.