Page 2283 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 1 November 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
which the National Aquarium is located. At present the land is "territorial" but is to be designated "national" under the published plans. Secondly, the absence for the time being of comprehensive planning and environment legislation for the ACT means that some continuing role for the Federal legislation in this area - I refer particularly to the Federal Environment Protection (Impact of Proposals) Act 1974 - may have been and perhaps should be preserved for the time being.
The concerns raised for the consideration of the committee dealt principally with the potential environmental harm of escaped or released fish or aquatic organisms from the National Aquarium into surrounding waterways. In assessing these issues the committee examined the history of this project. In April 1986 O&E Da Deppo Holdings Pty Limited applied for a grant of a lease over block 1461 at Belconnen. In its application the project was described as a "trout based fish farm and tourist attraction" where it was intended to "stock and display native fish and possibly some other exotic species".
Although the applicant originally sought a site on the southern side of the Molonglo River, below Scrivener Dam, a site was eventually chosen to the north of the river and slightly to the west of the dam. The latter site is superior, in that the aquarium is above the one in 500 years flood limit on that site. A lease was executed on 18 July 1988. The ACT Administration generally endorsed the objects of the application and referred the proposal to what is now the Department of Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories for assessment under the Federal environment protection Act. DASETT concluded in March 1987 that with careful planning and management the project was environmentally acceptable.
It reached the view - and this was expressed in letter form to Mr Da Deppo in March 1987 - that an environmental impact assessment under that Federal Act was unnecessary, although certain changes were suggested to the lease. Those changes were incorporated in the lease in due course. I will return later to the role of DASETT in this whole affair.
As I have already mentioned, the committee was concerned to examine whether fish disease might be spread if fish or aquatic organisms were allowed to escape from the site of the project into adjacent waterways. The concerns of the committee were substantially allayed by discussions held with Mr Da Deppo and the curator of the project and by consultation with experts in aquatic biology. The committee found that the developer is required to obtain Commonwealth, now Territory, permission before importing any consignment of fish, and that this constitutes a considerable safeguard against the large-scale importation of fish diseases into the Territory.
In addition, a clause in the lease requires the lessee to notify the Administration promptly of the outbreak of any
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .