Townsville – Metal Smelting Capital of the World!? Sep 24, 2006 at 11:07 PM
The map shows an area about the size of Magnetic Island that the state Government wants to set aside as a heavy industry development zone. Although it has been called the ‘Stuart Heavy Industry Area’, the map shows that it is an enormous area just upwind of most of Townsville’s urban centres.
Heavy Industry Area: The Townsville Heavy Industry Area, also known as the Townsville State Development Area, is a 49 square kilometre site adjacent to Cleveland Bay. The site contains many areas of environmental significance, including wetlands, fish nursery areas, protected bird rookeries and foraging areas for many protected species. This isn’t just another industrial estate! This represents a fundamental change to the future of our city and region. In October 2003 the State Government ignored the submissions of many Townsville residents and declared this area the Townsville State Development Area. Doing so has effectively removed decision-making for this area from our locally elected government and put it in the hands of the Coordinator-General, a Brisbane-based bureaucrat. Many of the safeguards required by existing legislation to ensure the protection of the environment and people’s health and wellbeing have been removed under the State Development Act. Much of what would normally be required in the assessment of a major industry plant, such as a lead or aluminium smelter, is now at the discretion of the Coordinator-General.
If Townsville becomes a centre for heavy industry, like Mount Isa or Gladstone, what will this mean in terms of:
the quality of our air and water?
residential property values?
the future health of our children?
our quality of life and lifestyle?
our tourism industry?
the ability of our region to attract clean sustainable industries in the future?
the environmental health of Cleveland Bay, where fauna has already been found to contain elevated levels of industrial chemicals?
If you don’t like the answers, then please join us and help put a stop to this now.
Just some of the industries that have been proposed for this area:
Expansion of Sun Metals to include a lead smelter and increased zinc production (already agreed to in ‘The State of Queensland and Sun Metals Corporation Pty Ltd, Townsville Refinery Agreement, 1996), a tannery, chemical manufacture, chemical storage, mineral processing, liquid fuel storage and coal-fired power station.
The Beattie Government is trying to make this region a major centre for heavy and toxic industries such as mineral processing and chemical production. This will fundamentally change our region and has many implications for residents, businesses and the environment. NQCC believes that our region would be better served by encouraging the growth of our existing world-class research institutions and other high employment, low impact industries. If you feel the same way, then please help us by making your feelings known to our politicians. Send them a letter or email telling them that this isn’t the future you want for our region.
The Hon. Peter Beattie, MP
Premier
PO Box 15185,
CITY EAST, Q, 4002
[email protected]
The Hon. Mike Reynolds, MP
Member for Townsville
PO Box 1148
Townsville 4810
Email: [email protected]
Write letters to the Editor
Townsville Bulletin: PO Box 587 Townsville Qld 4810
Email: [email protected]
The Courier-Mail: GPO Box 130 Brisbane 4001
Email: [email protected]
Chalco… Just Say No
The latest proposal to further the Beattie Government plan for our regions unsustainable heavy and toxic industry future is the controversial proposal for the Aluminium Corporation of China Limited (Chalco) to develop one of the world’s largest alumina refineries on the east coast of Queensland. Chalco will also investigate the possibility of smelting this alumina into aluminium, with the obvious choice of location being alongside the alumina refinery. Townsville is one of the three locations Chalco is considered for this huge refinery, and considered by many as the most likely choice. The people of North Queensland weren’t asked what they thought of this proposal nor were local residents given any real information about what to expect if their town is selected as home for this proposed refinery and perhaps smelter. To remedy the failure of government to provide the information needed for people to make an informed decision, NQCC has compiled the following information on the alumina refining and smelting process. Please keep in mind that without knowing the quality of the bauxite this proposal will use, information on many aspects of the process from energy and water requirements through to waste produced will vary. However every effort has been made to use the most current information available and throughout the following examples we have used very conservative figures and rounded numbers down to make them more readable.