A bungle from go to woe | Gympie News | Local News in Gympie

THE $1billion already wasted on the now scrapped Traveston Crossing dam, could have been used for water supply alternatives that might now be in operation, said Federal Member for Wide Bay Warren Truss.

Mr Truss has welcomed the interim decision made yesterday by the Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett, to reject the building of the dam, saying it was “a bungle from beginning to end”.

He said the environmental evidence was overwhelming and Mr Garrett had no option but to reject the ill-conceived proposal, adding the decision lifts the burden of uncertainty that has been hanging over the lives of the people of the Mary Valley.

He also said the lung fish, the Mary River turtle, the Mary River cod and the marine systems of the Great Sandy Strait Wetlands have been given the best chance of survival.

“The Beattie and Bligh governments should be ashamed of themselves for putting the Mary Valley communities through three and a half years of hell,” he said.

“Many people have been forced from their homes and lives have been ruined for a project that was always ill-conceived and could never have been allowed to proceed.”

The government must now move to make peace with the Mary Valley and to provide compensation to the people and communities whose lives have been callously disrupted by this fiasco, Truss said.

Mr Truss congratulated the local community on the success of their long campaign to stop the dam.

“They effectively harnessed the skills, knowledge and determination of the local people, to prepare the case against the dam and to prosecute the arguments with vigour and commitment,” he said.

“They prepared detailed scientific and engineering papers but also took the case to the public with clever cut-through messages and signs.”

Truss said support came from all around the country.

“The whole of the Mary Valley from top to bottom has had a load taken from its shoulders and now we need to get on with the task of rebuilding our future.”