General News
3 December, 2025
Against Port dredging
LOCAL environmentalists have vowed to keep opposing dredging of Port Hinchinbrook after the state government announced a plan to “revitalise” the failed resort development’s marina and surrounding waterways.
The premier and deputy premier earlier this month announced that the marina and surrounding Port Hinchinbrook complex had become a ‘Provisional Priority Development Area’ (PPDA), designed to unlock redevelopment (The Observer, 12/11/2025).
The aim of the PPDA is also to resolve long-running legal issues and improve access for recreational and emergency vessels, including reinstatement of “all-tide access” to the marina through removal of dredging spoil.
But the state government is yet to say how much dredging it plans to undertake and how much it will cost each year.
Environmentalist Kenn Parker, who has more than 30 years’ experience fighting the development, said he would keep up his campaign for any further dredging of creeks and waterways near and within the marina to be discontinued.
He said, not only did dredging harm the local seagrass habitat for dugongs and other sea life, but it was an ongoing financial drain for the region’s ratepayers and in effect, all Queenslanders who ultimately pay for the excavation of potentially toxic spoil.
“We’re a small community. Why do I have to keep paying so these people can get their boats in and out 24 hours a day?,” Mr Parker said.
“This community doesn’t even have a bus service. Most of the residents in this community, they’re over 80, they don’t go out in boats, they’re stuck in town,” he said.
Cassowary Coast Regional Council has reassured The Observer that ratepayers will not be paying directly for the next dredging scheduled for 2026, nor any dredging after that.
“Cassowary Coast Regional Council has not previously been responsible for dredging and has not budgeted to undertake dredging over the next five to 10 years,” a council spokeswoman said.
“A $1.5 million emergency dredging program took place in January 2025, which was fully funded by the Australian Government.”
The public is yet to be told how much the state government plans to spend over the next five to 10 years on dredging, nor what it intends to do with the spoil.
In the recent past, high-acidity spoil from the marina and creek leaked into the ocean from a badly-managed holding area south of the development, the environmental impacts of which Mr Parker and others uncovered with the help of the Environmental Defenders Office.
A previous council-commissioned report estimated at least $20 million would need to be spent on dredging alone, for a “long-term solution.”
Because the channel from the mouth of the development to the boat ramp naturally silts up quickly, frequent dredging would be needed to keep the state government’s promise of restoring all-tide access to both the creek and marina enclosure.
Another local environmentalist said he and others had previously suggested moving the boat ramp closer to the mouth of Port Hinchinbrook, so that the need for dredging the creek would be substantially reduced.
But that idea has had cold water thrown on it.
“Environmental group suggestions to relocate the boat ramp closer to the mouth of the inlet were acknowledged prior to the PPDA announcement, at which time it was found that no suitable council-owned or managed land could accommodate a new ramp and associated landside facilities,” the council spokeswoman said.
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