By Mitch Gaynor
UP TO 50 production blasts a year and no daily cap on truck movements have now been locked in after a court signed off on the controversial Glass House Mountains quarry expansion.
Planning and Environment Court Judge Nicole Kefford’s final orders formally approve Hanson’s appeal, allowing Heidelberg Materials’ quarry to double extraction from 600,000 tonnes to 1.2 million tonnes a year and dig to around 48 metres below sea level.
The orders also confirm Sunshine Coast Council failed to secure a number of restrictions it pursued after losing the substantive appeal in July.
Council had sought to cap haulage at 372 truck movements a day, limit production blasting to twice a month and impose a 50-year limit on the approval.
Hanson rejected those conditions and Council later backed away from each of them before the final orders were made.
There is no daily truck cap in the final approval and the proposed 50-year sunset clause has also disappeared.
Instead, production blasting will be limited to 50 blasts each calendar year, or roughly one a week, along with up to 22 blasts for development and rehabilitation works.
Quarry operations can run from 6am to 6pm weekdays and 7am to 1pm Saturdays.
The existing haulage route through Coonowrin Road to Steve Irwin Way remains in place, with trucks banned from using other routes except for local deliveries.
Haulage trucks cannot operate on the route before 5.30am or after 6.30pm.
The final orders bring to an end a long court battle sparked by Hanson’s appeal against Council’s deemed refusal of the expansion.
Judge Kefford’s July judgment was highly critical of parts of the case run against the quarry, describing some arguments as “non-sensical” and “scaremongering”.
Asked about those comments a Council spokesperson said: “Sunshine Coast Council did not elect to take the matter to a contested hearing, the applicant appealed the deemed refusal of the application.”
“Council’s ability to seek or impose conditions is limited to matters that are reasonable, relevant to the development and linked to assessment benchmarks within the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme.”
