Collapsed Quarry Wall Turns Suburban Homes Into Swamps

Sun Herald

Sunday June 15, 2008

By Georgina Robinson

A TEMPORARY quarry "dam" that burst its banks and rained mud and rocks on nearby homes should never have been built, Brisbane City Council says.

The council will investigate developer Brookfield Multiplex after a temporary sediment basin on the group's Keperra quarry site, in Brisbane's north-west, overflowed in torrential rain earlier this month.

Three homes downhill from the quarry were damaged after a mass of water, mud and rocks broke the basin's makeshift concrete-block wall, poured over Samford Road and swept through their backyards.

Brookfield Multiplex immediately acted to clean up the Glenmorgan Street homes and sent insurance assessors out to take stock of property damage.

But a spokesperson for Lord Mayor Campbell Newman yesterday said the group did not have council approval to build the basin in the first place.

The Sun-Herald also found the group had in February lodged an application to build a permanent structure to capture and trap water and sediment.

But it was not until June 6 - four days after the "temporary" structure collapsed - that the council gave formal approval for work to begin.

A council spokesperson said officers would investigate "any potential breach of compliance" on the part of Brookfield Multiplex.

Cr Newman yesterday said he would get to the bottom of the issue. "I'm very concerned about that and I'll be asking a lot of questions internally to find out what's going on," he said.

A Brookfield Multiplex spokesperson said the group could not comment on the sediment basin's legality.

But affected residents in Glenmorgan Street said this month's incident was the culmination of a four-year battle over the quarry's operations.

Resident Adrian Zappone said underground water seepage had turned his backyard into a swamp.

"I was collecting between 1000 and 3000 litres of water a day, that was constantly," Mr Zappone said.

"It was just a big, soggy hole, there were even water plants starting to grow, even water dragons moved into my yard because of the water."

Cameron Mackenzie, who rents next door, said the seepage had damaged the house's foundations.

"My stumps are gone, my slab's all cracking underneath, the same as next door, the water's just undermined it," Mr Mackenzie said.

Local Labor MP and state Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson earlier this year convened a series of meetings with residents, Brookfield Multiplex, the council and other state agencies after heavy rain in January first sent water from the quarry over the road and into Mr Zappone's and Mr Mackenzie's backyards.

But Mr Wilson said the area's "complex geological make-up" made it hard to find a cause for the ongoing seepage issue.

Dye-testing of water turned up a confusing result, he said.

"There's an acknowledgement the water's from seepage but no one's been able to identify whether the seepage comes from the Keperra [quarry] property or somewhere more distant," Mr Wilson said.

© 2008 Sun Herald

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