Final rejection of Traveston Dam project

The Federal Government has reaffirmed its decision to block the construction of the Traveston Dam because of the project’s potential impact on threatened species.

Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, says he has concluded the dam would have “unacceptable impacts” on matters of national environmental significance.

Mr Garrett says his decision is based on science – science that is very clear about the adverse impacts the project would have on the nationally protected Australian lungfish, Mary River Turtle and Mary River Cod.

The minister says the advice he has received from independent experts and his department demonstrates the dam proposal would lead to irreversible consequences for the species and, most likely, would lead to their further decline.

Mr Garrett says dams can play a valuable role in terms of water supply when well located and carefully designed. He says, however, the Traveston Dam would seriously impact the species’ breeding by flooding of their habitat and fragmenting significant populations.

He says the Queensland Coordinator-General proposed about 1,200 conditions of approval, but the effectiveness of the measures was uncertain because they couldn’t be tested until the dam was operational.