Traveston dam is a travesty - and unnecessary

Anna Bligh's grand plan of a dam on the Mary River at Traveston Crossing near Gympie is now in the lap of Peter Garrett. This is a dumb dam plan in a dumb location that would produce a massively wide yet shallow dam with extraordinary evaporation losses. It will also emperil the already endangered prehistoric lungfish that live in those reaches of the river.

The fact is that there are viable alternatives to building more dams. And the Queensland Government knows it.

In 1999, the Department of Natural Resources advised the Caloundra-Maroochy Water and Wastewater Steering Committee (on which as a Councillor I was the Maroochy Council's delegate) that their research had shown that, despite facing runaway population growth, use of wastewater recycling would allow Queensland to cope with all the projected population growth without needing to build any more dams.

That's right - no more dams at all.


But people like then Caloundra Councillor Chris Cummins instead embraced blatant populism to lead a campaign against recycling, a campaign that has had long-lasting impacts on politicians' willingness to exhibit courage on this critical subject.

For many years, friends and I paddled down the Mary River from Kenilworth to Gympie every Easter, gliding over the top of the endangered lungfish.

And now that river is under direct threat from Anna Bligh's blindly following Peter Beattie's dam plans (here's hoping the slump in her approval ratings leads to a re-evaluation of her approach to things).

If the Traveston Dam goes ahead, it will be the price Coast residents pay for "poo-phobia".