Great Barrier tiff

SYDNEY - One of the world's biggest coal ports will be built in Australia's north-east, but the project has outraged environmentalists who say it will have a devastating impact on the Great Barrier Reef.

The controversial port expansion at Abbot Point in north Queensland will involve digging up the seabed, with three million cubic litres of the dredged waste to be dumped offshore.

It will allow the port to become a hub for exporting coal and coal seam gas from the inland Galilee Basin, which is believed to contain more than 14 billion tonnes of coal.

The decision to expand the port had been deferred repeatedly by both the ruling coalition and the former Labor government until Prime Minister Tony Abbott gave the go-ahead and it was announced earlier this month.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt insisted that the new development would have to follow strict conditions and would not damage the reef's water quality.

The dredged waste would be dumped on the shoreline or near to shore, or used to reclaim land, he said.

"Basically, you're taking sand and mud from where they would actually be dredging and then moving it a little bit of distance to sand and mud in exactly the same proportion," he told Queensland radio station 4BC last week.

"So in other words, seabed is simply being moved to like seabed."

But the project comes amid concerns about the future of the Great Barrier Reef, which spans more than 2,000km on the Queensland coast.

One of Australia's best-known tourist sites, it draws about two million visitors a year and brings in about A$6 billion (S$6.8 billion) annually from tourism.

Environmentalists say the project, coupled with other approved ports being built along the coast, involves the largest-scale industrial development ever to hit the reef - and at a time when it is in its poorest health.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society said the port, which will allow hundreds of millions of tonnes of coal to be shipped a year, could be "the death knell" for the reef.

It said the dumped material will damage coral and cover seagrass, which provides food for marine life such as dugongs and turtles.

"The reef is already in serious strife," campaign director Felicity Wishart told The Straits Times.

"We have a massive problem emerging, where there is already a very serious water quality problem. This could be the death knell."

Conservation group WWF said it was a "short-sighted and damaging decision" and that the dredged waste would spread across the reef.

Meanwhile, the extra shipping to the ports - particularly from countries with poor shipping standards - will damage the seabed and further pollute the water, the group said.

"The dumping of dredge spoil in reef waters is an outdated practice and should be banned," said WWF spokesman Richard Leck.

The project follows warnings from Unesco last year that it may move to list the reef, which is on the World Heritage List, as "at risk" due to the increase of ports along the coast.

Research last year found that the reef had lost half of its coral in the past 27 years, due to a range of factors including storms, outbreaks of coral-consuming starfish, and coral bleaching.

A study released two weeks ago by Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, from the University of Queensland, warned that rising sea temperatures were destroying coral and could completely kill off the reef by the year 2100.

Environmental groups are planning to rally against the port and are urging the official body which advises the government on protecting the reef, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, to block the Abbot Point project.

But the campaign is set to pit green groups against both the Queensland state government and mining groups, which believe the projects are vital to the area's economy and will provide thousands of jobs.

"Generations of Queenslanders will benefit from the economic benefits from the development of Abbot Point," the state's deputy leader, Mr Jeff Seeney, told the Sunshine Coast Daily newspaper.

The head of the state's mining organisation, the Queensland Resources Council, Mr Michael Roche, said industry could co-exist with the reef and dismissed critics as "increasingly hysterical environmental activists".

But environmental groups intend to ramp up their campaigns before the dredging, which could start by next March.

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