By ALENA HIGGINS
ALLORA has always been a quiet, clean and tidy town, or so Cathie Shaw thought.
It was these attributes which drew her back to her village of birth following a stint in Brisbane.
But it soon became apparent that the town had “suffered and fallen into pieces” since amalgamation and the approval of a major grain handling process was driving the final nail into an already perforated coffin.
“Since moving to Allora in 2010, we have not had any luck with the council at all,” a fed-up Ms Shaw said.
“We are ratepayers just like everyone else, but don’t get anything other than the bills – they keep coming and keep getting bigger too and we are getting less and less.”
The mother-of-three said Southern Downs Regional Council (SDRC) had a lot to answer for, including “how on earth” it allowed GrainX Australia to set up shop in the main street of a residential town.
“Shipping containers are banging and clashing at ridiculous hours of the night and the town is covered in grain dust…and becoming more and more worthless,” she said.
“How did the grain operation get the green light without residents being informed or given a choice?”
And Ms Shaw is not the only one desperate for action.
In a letter to the Free Times editor this week, an Allora resident of 32 years living directly across from the facility slammed SDRC for condemning their household to “a nightmare from which we cannot escape”.
Barriers erected to minimise noise were “ineffective”, the homeowner wrote, and “forces residents to close windows and doors in their own homes in searing heat in an attempt to reduce noise and pollution making us prisoners in our own homes”.
“We are subjected to excessive dust and chemical smells. The council cannot tell us what the dust may contain and it enters our drinking water,” they wrote.
“Shame on the SDRC. You have destroyed our little town.”
SDRC director of planning and environment Ken Harris conceded that complaints about the GrainX facility had increased in the last couple of months but said the two silos and two storage buildings were more than 40 years old and pre-date any form of planning controls in Allora.
“It is important to note that the facility has Existing Use Rights that are protected by the Queensland Sustainable Planning Act and council has no power to require the facility to close and any action of this type would be contrary to the State Act,” he said.
He said council had been working with GrainX operators to resolve these dust and noise complaints and council officers had conducted onsite inspections and noise monitoring at night.
“Council acknowledges that during the droughts and down turns in the grain industry in the past decade, the facility has operated well below peak capacity, but in recent times the use of the facility has returned to the pre-existing levels of usage that have occurred in the past.”
Mr Harris said council officers would be recommending a number of options to council to deal with the increasing complaints and they had advised GrainX representatives of the planned course of action.
Councillors are expected to consider and discuss these options in depth at council’s next general meeting on 26 November in Stanthorpe.
SDRC approved a proposal to reopen the grain storage distribution facility in October 2011.
Last month, SDRC unveiled its new $3.1 million Allora pipeline, ensuring the town has a reliable and high quality water supply.
