00:00An early morning start for an idyllic day on the water.
00:06Just hours later, the same port, muddy, silted and unusable.
00:12It's really been ongoing since Yassie.
00:14Businesses here really depend highly on visitor numbers and basically our main attraction
00:20here is our fishing and boating and we're losing that.
00:23It was an early 90s vision of eccentric developer Keith Williams.
00:27The project was dogged with environmental opposition, financial troubles and natural
00:32disaster.
00:34Its centrepiece, the port, was dredged at the cost of the developer.
00:38We've got the most magnificent waterways out there.
00:40We've got the Hinchinbrook Channel just sightseeing out there.
00:42We've got the reef.
00:44We just need access to it.
00:46It's not just businesses impacted.
00:47It's a major safety issue.
00:50Someone rings up the wrong tide, they could be waiting for us for five hours before we
00:55can even put the boat in the water.
00:57Which is what happened in the rescue of two capsized kayakers.
01:01Some good Samaritans stepped in.
01:03With $1.5 million of federal money on the table, but not yet delivered, there are glimmers
01:09of hope.
01:10The Premier has also pledged that if elected, the state will acquire land and dredge, but
01:15only in the first instance.
01:18An independent report commissioned by the council has found that a long-term solution
01:22to provide all-tide access would cost at least $20 million, and include an up-front
01:28$10 million capital cost.
01:31If it's something that needs to be dredged maybe once every 10 years, that might be economically
01:35viable.
01:36However, if it's something that needs to be dredged once every two years, entirely different
01:40set of economics.
01:41The local member hopes the state's help will make the port attractive to a new buyer.
01:46This whole property was set up incorrectly in the first place, and we need to sort that
01:51out.
01:53We need to finally realise that.
01:54But environmentalists say the development was doomed from the start, and any effort
01:59to turn it back to its former glory would be wasted.
02:02This project's been an unmitigated disaster from day one.
02:05Because of the location of where it is, because of the high siltation rates that occur here,
02:10there's no way that a project like this can be successful.
02:15With fresh concerns, the storage of acid sulphate spoils could be leaching back into the environment,
02:20and the knock on costs of any project going forward.
02:23This is a community of aged people.
02:25They don't want a boat ramp, they want a fricking bus service.
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