Australia Bans Dumping within Great Barrier Reef

Greg Hunt said the regulation would forever end the disposal of capital dredge spoil within the marine park - an area 345,000 square kilometres in size. Capital dredging is the removal of an undisturbed area of the seabed.

The reef, home to a huge array of life, is under threat from massive industrial development to enlarge port facilities. Hunt said the dumping of capital dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park would be completely banned under draft legislation drawn up by the federal government.

The marine park stretches from the far north of Queensland past the coal terminals of Abbot Point, Dalrymple Bay and Hay Point to beyond the coal and LNG port of Gladstone. The ban means that any future expansion or maintenance dredging of these ports will require onshore disposal of the dredged material, which is more expensive than dumping it in the ocean.

Hunt added that the federal draft laws would protect 99 per cent of the World Heritage Area, which falls within the marine park.

The ban will cover existing and future “capital” dredging, which is the initial digging up of seabed sediment in an approved dredging project. But it does not cover maintenance dredging – which Hunt said was needed to avoid a “catastrophic” shipping accident – nor burying cables or pipelines.

The Queensland state government also plans to ban dredge dumping in a further 3,000 sq km of sea, including port areas, so the whole of the World Heritage area, about the size of Germany, would be covered.

Indian conglomerates Adani and GVK last week agreed with the Queensland state government that they will dispose of their dredge spoil onshore from the expansion of Abbot Point, which will require a new environmental approval application to be filed.