Sunshine Coast Council has moved forward with its plans to explore options for a qualified commercial operator to lease its two quarries by launching an expressions of interest (EOI) process.
But the move has been met with dismay by the president of the Hinterland Quarry Action Group, who says the timing meant the community had little opportunity to respond.
A council spokesperson said the EOI process was commenced after weighing up issues raised in a letter from the community in early August about the Dulong and Image Flat quarries.
“After considering the issues raised in the letter, council opted to proceed with the EOI on Friday, September 8,” they said.
“Council has listened to community concerns and the EOI timeline has been extended from December 2023 to June 2024.
“The EOI was released to market via QTenders on Saturday, September 9, as dictated by the QTender procedure. The EOI is open for three months.”
Hinterland Quarry Action Group president Anne Veivers said council had not allowed the community time to understand or appeal the decision.
“On August 7, Blackall Range community groups supported by OSCAR (Organisation of Sunshine Coast Association of Residents) and SCEC (Sunshine Coast Environment Council) presented a 27-page written submission of quarry issues of concern to council,” she said in a media statement.
“In a September 1 response to that submission, council advised the community it would pause releasing the EOI to consider the issues raised and its response to these.
“Without providing any factual or explanatory reply to the community submission, council released the EOI at midnight on September 8 after advising the community in an email at 4.19pm that same day. The timing of this communication and the midnight release ensured the community had no opportunity to respond.
“Impacted Dulong and Image Flat residents are outraged at council suddenly releasing the EOI in such a manner.”
The council spokesperson said the release of the EOI did not mean a decision had been made about the future direction of the quarries.
“The EOI process simply allows council to seek proposals from the market in relation to the future operation of the quarries,” they said.
“Council will not be in a position to make any decision until it has an opportunity to properly review and consider the responses from the EOI process.”
Ms Veivers said concerned residents had unsuccessfully tried to access information from council to better assess and understand the potential impacts of the decision.
“The information requested has included development applications; historical extraction data; environmental assessments; quarry and traffic management plans; and blast, air and water discharge data,” she said.
“All of this key information would normally be publicly available. Council has to date denied every single community information request. They claim while the EOI process is underway, all Dulong and Image Flat quarry information is considered commercially confidential and is not available to residents.”
Ms Veivers said council documents state that it seeks a private contractor “who will invest and grow the quarrying operations”. Of particular concern is that a contractor could apply to reopen the latent asphalt plant at Image Flat.
“Increased rates of extraction and restarting the asphalt plant will inevitably place additional impacts on nearby residents including increased truck traffic, extra blasts, more dust, noise and vibration emissions,” she said.
The council quarries at Image Flat and Dulong have been in operation for more than 50 years.
They manufacture and supply rock products for the construction, maintenance and repair of the region’s 2597km of sealed roads and 474km of unsealed roads.
The council spokesperson said a review was undertaken in 2022 to improve the performance of both quarries. In December it voted to pursue the EOI process. The two-phase procurement process, commencing with the EOI, was expected to be released in February 2023 and to be completed by June 2023.
But feedback from the community from a variety of sources, including a community meeting on February 7, was taken into consideration and council revised its timeline for the EOI.
Council was planning to go out to market with an EOI on August 11 but delayed the move after receiving the letter from the community on August 7.
Following the EOI, if an appropriate commercial operator is identified, council may proceed to undertake a closed tender process in accordance with its procurement policy and procedures.
Ms Veivers said she wanted residents’ concerns to be heard by council.
“Hinterland residents are angry, frustrated and disappointed council continues to demonstrate it’s not taking their needs into account as it forges towards a private operator for the quarries,” she said.
The Hinterland Quarry Action Group has planned a community meeting for Tuesday, October 10, at 7pm at Kureelpa Hall.
Ms Veivers said the meeting was an opportunity for residents to ask questions about the EOI process and to learn about the resulting implications for themselves, local roads, natural environment and the broader hinterland.
