By Jeremy Sollars
Allora residents continue to endure disruption to their daily lives from the GrainX grain-handling facility on Herbert Street despite the Southern Downs Regional Council starting legal action over the company’s alleged non-compliance with conditions of its development approval.
As reported previously in the Free Times – as far back as December last year – dust and noise from loading and unloading of the GrainX silos and noise and safety concerns associated with heavy vehicles have made life unbearable for some in ‘The Best Little Town on the Downs’.
Months on, residents say little has changed.
Many have reported health concerns due to grain dust laced with insecticide covering and entering homes, including rainwater supplies.
Sleep deprivation and property de-valuation are also in the mix, along with plain, old-fashioned stress, with some residents venturing into Warwick on a regular basis simply to get away from the operation for a day’s respite.
Herbert Street residents are the worst-affected but the complaints are by no means confined to that street alone.
At least one worker at the Southern Cross Care Homestead aged facility who lives near GrainX is understood to have quit their night-shift work in recent weeks after being unable to sleep during the day, and elderly residents at the town’s other Southern Cross Care nursing home – just up the road from GrainX at the corner of Herbert and Darling streets – reportedly are no longer able to enjoy a stint outside in the morning sun.
GrainX typically cranks up its generator around 7am on weekdays and grain trucks roll on and off the site continuously, followed by the deafening noise of tonnes of grain falling into silos.
While GrainX has mercifully stopped operating at weekends it’s little relief for Allora residents.
In a statement released on 16 February 2017, the council announced it had “engaged legal counsel to potentially bring legal action against GrainX to deal with outstanding matters in relation to the operation of the facility, particularly with regard to noise and dust”.
Dust and noise monitoring equipment has been installed at some residences, but the Free Times understands some of the devices are in backyards or under awnings which could reduce their accuracy.
The council is also taking action over alleged non-compliance with landscaping requirements set down in its 2011 approval for GrainX.
But residents say they’ve had no further word on progress of the legal action since meeting with council officers and its solicitors to give statements back in March.
Herbert Street’s Neil Bower said the council’s solicitors had advised residents they would see drafts of their statements but Mr Bower is yet to see his.
“There’s been no update on where the legal action over the environmental testing is at,” he said this week.
“People are just worried that the solicitors are going to drag this right out and that any further complaints will be seen as trivial.”
So persistent has Mr Bower been in following up with the council over its progress with GrainX that he’s been provided with his own email address to which to direct his inquiries.
A South Street resident, who declined to be identified, told the Free Times trucks entering and leaving the site over the unsealed entrance area blew up dust clouds which forced himself and his wife to keep their home sealed up almost permanently.
“I can’t understand why GrainX wasn’t required to seal the driveway, as would happen with any development,” the resident said.
“When the harvest is full on we can have 70 road trains going into and coming out of there.
“It’s worse when there’s a northerly wind, fortunately it’s been south-easterlies the last couple of weeks.”
GrainX has a silo storage capacity of 8000 tonnes and a shed storage capacity of 12,000 tonnes.
The Free Times sought comment from the council on the status of the legal action against GrainX but a spokeswoman said council could not comment on any current legal action. GrainX management did not return our calls.
