Port Hinchinbrook marina an economic and ecological ‘disaster’ in need of costly rescue

It promised an idyllic lifestyle with everything tropical Queensland had to offer, along with resort-style amenities, restaurants and some of the country’s best fishing any time you wanted to take your boat out.

And for a while, the marina development at Port Hinchinbrook, on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area in North Queensland, delivered.

But 30 years on, the glossy brochures are long gone, the sales office has been abandoned and what remains of the small housing estate bears the scars of successive natural and corporate disasters. 

Now an overgrown tennis court and a shuttered restaurant with torn marquees sit alongside Port Hinchinbrook’s biggest controversy of all — a harbour that was created by dredging a creek.

Now for much of each day, it’s a quagmire of mud and silt, trapping the very boats it was built for.

When the maintenance came to a halt and the creek stopped flowing, so did the economic prosperity that was expected to energise the nearby town of Cardwell, where talk of “the dredge” is never far from the lips of residents and retailers.  

After three decades of false starts, shattered dreams, broken promises, company liquidations, legal battles, and dubious environmental approvals, the community is divided, frustrated and exhausted.

But many still cling to the hope that a long-term solution to fix the port’s “river of mud” is just over the horizon.

‘The money … was phenomenal’

Gift shop and fashion boutique owner Robyn Smith has ridden the development’s rollercoaster of fortunes.

In the Port Hinchinbrook resort’s heyday, before Cyclone Yasi devastated it in 2011, Ms Smith managed a restaurant and accommodation business there.

For many, it was the halcyon days of Cardwell.

“The money that big events — fishing tournaments, the Townsville-to-Port Hinchinbrook yacht race — brought into town was phenomenal,” Ms Smith said.

But not anymore. 

“We’re losing those numbers. We’re losing the visitors. They are not coming,” she said.

Ms Smith said when the resort was open, the Stony Creek channel was dredged and there was better boat access to the Hinchinbrook Channel.

She said in busy periods accommodation providers were often full, but now estimates they are only at 30 to 40 per cent capacity during peak times.

Earlier this year, the Cassowary Coast Regional Council and the Cardwell Chamber of Commerce made a submission to the state government, detailing how the town had suffered in the years since Cyclone Yasi destroyed the port.

It noted Cardwell’s population had declined by about 15 per cent, more than 30 small businesses had closed and the town had lost more than 90 jobs.

The submission called for a commitment from all levels of government to address the need for a permanent solution for “all-tide and all-weather access” and to seek “new and innovative investment attraction models”.

The cost of a long-term solution to dredge and maintain the channel would be around $20 million, according to a report commissioned by the council. 

But there has been some movement this year.

The council has recently put out a tender for the removal of 1,000  tonnes of silt from the creek, funded by a $1.5 million grant from the federal government, which was promised five years ago.

And Premier Steven Miles has promised that if his government wins the upcoming state election, it will complete dredging in “its first instance” and acquire land in the Port Hinchinbrook development to be improved and sold.

When it first opened, the costly responsibility of dredging the creek was taken on by the developer — the eccentric Keith Williams, famously known as the founder of Sea World and developer of Hamilton Island. 

But Mr Williams died in October 2011, nine months after Cyclone Yasi left a multibillion-dollar trail of destruction along the coast, and his company, Williams Corporation, went into liquidation shortly after.

In 2016, many hoped a new buyer of the development, Passage Holdings Limited, would reignite and expand the project with a $450 million investment.

But within a year, the company had been wound up as property values in the newly renamed ‘Hinchinbrook Harbour’ plummeted. They’ve since recovered somewhat and new building projects are underway. 

Dugongs vs development

The Port Hinchinbrook development was controversial from the outset.

A senate report, tabled in 1999, criticised the Queensland government’s approvals process and the fact that it had failed to insist on a “full environmental impact assessment” being carried out.

In the early and mid-1990s, environmental activist Ken Parker was among protesters vehemently opposed to the marina project.

With his friend, the late conservationist Margaret Thorsborne, he tried to stop the destruction of the area’s mangroves, which are crucial for the seagrass meadows that dugongs feed on.

At times, the protest became heated.

“They [workers] ejected us, physically ejected us from the marine park, using extreme violence in some cases,” Mr Parker said.

While many residents in Cardwell continue to lobby for funding to re-start dredging, Mr Parker remains steadfastly opposed.

“It will be the third time, if not more, that they’ve tried to dredge this out and it just keeps coming back,” Mr Parker said.

“The community, ratepayers, are going to be paying for this and we’re a small community. 

Environmental contamination fears

Before it was dug out, Stony Creek was originally a natural water course, with its depth dependent on tidal flow.

But with irregular flooding and low flow into the creek, the now widened and deepened channel continues to clog up.

Local man and former engineer John Mewing says he also has environmental concerns about the development.

“This project’s been an unmitigated disaster from day one,” Mr Mewing said.

“[But] I wouldn’t discount the government, or subsequent governments, doing something really, really stupid, like throwing a bucket of money at this.”

Mr Mewing says he is also concerned about the environmental impacts from the storage of silt that has already been dredged.

He says the acid sulphate soils become highly acidic after they have dried out and become wet again, posing clear pollution risks. 

Earlier this year, the Queensland environment department issued an Environmental Protection Order to the development’s liquidator, who is in charge of the silt storage, to prevent “further unauthorised releases” into the Girramay National Park.

Many critics of the development believe it was doomed from the beginning.

In the 1999 senate inquiry, an environmental lobby group referenced a 1977 feasibility study by the Department of Harbours and Marine, which they said recommended against using Oyster Point, the site of the development, as the location for a harbour, given its high siltation rates and naturally shallow waters.

The senate inquiry was also critical of the state government for not insisting on a “full environmental impact assessment”  and suggested the approval process was “considerably influenced by the developer” — Mr Williams. 

Lives at risk

Cardwell Coast Guard Commander Ken English says the dire conditions of the channel can often hamper rescue efforts.

Sometimes it can be a five-hour wait before the tide is high enough for the rescue craft to leave the channel.

“Most of our rescues are within an hour and a half of travel, but if you’ve got to wait five hours before you can even start the travel, that is a major problem,” Mr English said.

The diver, who lost his leg, was eventually brought to shore by his friends, who battled against the tide to save him.

“They were back here before we had enough water to get onto the boat ramp,” he said.

‘We can’t walk away’

The Port Hinchinbrook development is undergoing a process of ‘normalisation’, with the Cassowary Coast Regional Council looking to service public spaces there like it does in Cardwell.

The Queensland government last month committed $7 million to complete a sewage treatment plant at the development to replace an older failing system.

State member for Hinchinbrook Nick Dametto said he was hopeful that if the state government could start acquiring land and dredge the creek, it would attract another developer.

He said the conformed deed that was drafted between the original developer and the three levels of government set out responsibilities for the project and made it an unappealing investment.

“There is no way this thing is going to sell in its current form,” Mr Dametto said.

“This whole thing was set up incorrectly in the first place and we need to sort this out.”

Mr Dametto said that despite the development’s controversial past, walking away from it would be a missed economic opportunity.

“You can walk up and down the coast … there are multiple mistakes,” he said.

No longer a white elephant

Back in Cardwell, Ms Smith said bringing access back to the creek was imperative for tourism.

“To see our beautiful Hinchinbrook Island — it’s sitting out there — but we can’t access it because of the tides,” she said. 

“Fishermen now want safe, 24-7 access without it being tidal. 

But she believes hope is returning to the community.

“I think everyone is seeing the final picture — not seeing this as a liability, seeing it as an asset,” she said.

“We just have to get a long-term sustainable plan happening. We don’t want this to happen again.”