Queensland developer fined for environmental blunder

8 February 2010 | by Gemma Battenbough

An environmental breach has left a Queensland developer with mud on its face and a $65,000 bill.

PGP Developments has been ordered by the Federal Court of Australia to pay $65,000 in fines and costs for failing to comply with environmental legislation on its Whitsunday Shores development.

?Minister for the Environment, Heritage and The Arts, Peter Garrett, brought the residential developer before court when it failed to include a lagoon to the eastern side of the site.

The 2,300 cubic metre sediment control pond would have improved water quality, captured eroding soil and collected storm water run off.

The developer was ordered to pay $40,000 in fines for contravening the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, along with a further $25,000 for court proceedings.

The federal department for the environment said the ruling sent a clear message to developers about meeting legal requirements.

PGP Developments’ website claims that the Whitsunday Shores estate will be a “self-sufficient community”, to include the ecological restoration of the foreshore.

The developer was not returning Architecture & Design’s calls at the time of publication.

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Add a comment1 Comment

krzystoff | 8 February, 2010 at 07:01 PM
the reality is, this will not serve as a deterrent, until the fine is linked to the cost savings made by the developers omission. they may have egg on their face, but the fine is invariably minute over the scale of the project, and far less than what they saved by not including the lagoon. in the end they have to pay an extra $65K, however many unfortunately, unscrupulous developers will consider it a worthwhile risk to cut corners like this; just as it is, with illegally dumping toxic waste into sewers and waterways.