The Battle for Mary Valley: Government Halts "Disposal" of Properties

The failed Traveston Dam project continues to create problems for the Queensland Government, even more than two years after the project has been cancelled.

The former government had planned to sell back the homes and properties bought during the debacle, and has spent the last few years selling them via auction, a few properties at a time. The new Deputy Premier, Jeff Seeney, has said, today, that to “drip-feed” the strategy adopted by the former governments had failed to deliver a result, describing it as “ridiculous”.

The Newman government, and Deputy Premier Seeney, have blocked the auction of further properties until the new government can develop a new method to provide the sale and turnover of properties in the region.

The Traveston Dam debacle cost the Beattie and Bligh governments millions of dollars but ultimately did not go ahead, the plan halted in its tracks by ferocious local and environmental lobbying and protest. During the preparation stages for the dam, hundreds of homes in the Mary Valley area were bought by the state government to be cleared for the dam, but since the battle for Traveston Dam has ended the homes have been returning to the sales market, albeit incrementally, a few homes at a time. Currently there are three government-owned Mary Valley properties ready for auction on Tuesday.

Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney says it is time the government took a new approach. He has said that he has already ordered an immediate review of the process of disposal of properties in the wake of the Traveston Dam fiasco.

“The LNP Government will develop a new strategy which will have the core aim of re-establishing communities,” said Mr Seeney today. “I intend to act quickly. The Beattie-Bligh process has been halted. We will deliver a new strategy within a month.”

"The failed Traveston Dam proposal was one of the biggest blunders of the Bligh and Beattie Governments,” Mr Seeney added. “It was a debacle of massive proportions which has cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars. Unfortunately it will cost taxpayers many, many millions more dollars to rectify the inept decisions of the past Labor Government."

Karl Anderson