CITY SANDBLASTED

Kaloorup residents are outraged that an extractive industry application is being supported by the City of Busselton for a sand mine adjacent to their properties.

More than 30 concerned homeowners attended the City of Busselton’s community access meeting on Wednesday to express their dissatisfaction with the proposed mine.

Margaret River Natural Resources Pty Ltd submitted an application to extract 200,000 tonnes of sand and gravel over an area of 20.94 hectares at Lot 101 (285) Gibb Road, Kaloorup.

Council will vote on the application at next week's meeting, with city officers recommending the item be approved subject to the proponent meeting more than 40 conditions.

A petition with more than 70 signatures was tabled to the City of Busselton on January 17 with a request that the City “do not permit any further extractive industries in that particular area”.

The petition cited negative impacts resulting from the large number of existing extractive industries operating in Kaloorup where there are tourist operations, vineyards and recreational activities such as horse riding and mountain biking.

Kwik Logistics managing director Craig Smith-Gander said he was concerned by the noise, water pollution and road degradation the project would cause.

“The proponents have acknowledged that they will not own the trucks that will go to and from the mine so how will they regulate the speed the trucks travel at,” he said.

“Here in the City of Busselton we have the best grapes in the country and this mine could contaminate multiple wineries with silica dust.”

The City imposed a limit of 10 trucks in and 10 trucks out transporting materials from the site and proposed to widen Gibb road from 5m to 9m-wide but Gibb Road resident Ross Booth said the measure was inadequate.

“We live in a quiet and peaceful place and we did not sign up for the noise and dust of a sand mine 900m from our property,” he said. “Water is a scarce commodity and the site is alongside the Carbunup River, it will contaminate the river which livestock drink from.”

City of Busselton director of planning and development services Paul Needham said the mine would be subject to regulation by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and the onus of traffic control was on the proponent.