The Chamber’s submission was lodged with Gold Coast City Council as a properly made submission under the Planning Act 2016 (Qld), and a copy was also forwarded to the Deputy Premier of Queensland following the proposed ministerial call-in notice. This is not activist opposition. This is the Gold Coast’s hinterland business community saying the costs and impacts clearly outweigh any claimed economic benefits.
At its core, the Chamber’s objection comes down to one thing: the Gold Coast hinterland’s identity, its natural beauty, its lifestyle appeal and its tourism value are the reasons people choose to live and do business here. A large-scale quarry operating for decades in the middle of that landscape puts all of it at risk. The Chamber weighed the evidence across planning, environment, traffic, health and economics, and concluded that the proposal fails on every front.
What the Chamber Found
The Chamber acknowledged that Boral has made some modifications to its previous application, including a 20 per cent reduction in the proposed disturbance footprint and a cut in annual production from 2 million tonnes to 1.2 million tonnes per year. However, after weighing all the evidence, the Chamber concluded that the fundamental problems with the proposal remain unchanged.
Their objection covered five key areas.
Planning and Land Use
The Reedy Creek site sits in a semi-rural residential area surrounded by homes and lifestyle properties. While the site is identified as a Key Resource Area (KRA) under the City Plan, this does not grant automatic approval. Gold Coast City Council unanimously refused this same quarry on 18 July 2014, and that decision was upheld by the Planning and Environment Court (Boral Resources (Qld) Pty Ltd v Gold Coast City Council [2017] QPEC 23) and again by the Queensland Court of Appeal in 2018. The Chamber’s position is that the fundamental land use conflict identified in those decisions has not been resolved.
Environmental Impact
The Reedy Creek site contains 216.7 hectares of vegetated bushland. The current proposal would disturb approximately 56.4 hectares, more than a quarter of the site. Previous assessments found that clearing at this location would destroy over 23,000 koala food trees. Since the previous application was refused, the koala has been upgraded from vulnerable to endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) in February 2022.
The Chamber also highlighted the recently completed M1 upgrade between Burleigh and Palm Beach, finished in April 2025, which includes a specially constructed 55-metre fauna underpass connecting the Burleigh to Springbrook bioregional wildlife corridor. Approving a quarry that fragments this corridor would be directly at odds with that public investment.
Traffic and Road Safety
The quarry would generate up to 400 heavy vehicle movements per day along Old Coach Road and surrounding local roads. These routes are relatively narrow and winding, and were never designed for decades of continuous quarry truck traffic. With up to 1.2 million tonnes of product per year being distributed to customers, plus an additional 200,000 tonnes per year transported between the Reedy Creek and West Burleigh sites, the cumulative impact on road safety across the southern Gold Coast would be severe.
Noise, Dust and Vibration
With an estimated resource of approximately 79 million tonnes at the proposed production rate, this quarry could operate for many decades. That means multiple generations of the community would be living with regular blasting, the constant noise of crushing and screening equipment, silica dust and vibration for the working life of the quarry and beyond.
The West Burleigh Landfill
The application also proposes using the existing West Burleigh Quarry void as a construction and demolition waste landfill. Residents near West Burleigh reasonably expected the area to quieten as quarrying wound down. This proposal would extend significant industrial activity at that site for many additional years, with associated risks of leachate contamination into the Tallebudgera catchment.
The Economic Argument Does Not Stack Up
Boral has pointed to housing affordability and local supply of aggregate as public benefits. The Chamber did not dismiss the importance of construction materials supply. However, the courts have previously found that regional demand can be met from other sources without accessing this site. There is no guarantee that any cost savings in raw materials would flow through to home buyers. As the 2017 Planning and Environment Court decision noted, any pressing need for an additional hard rock quarry was unlikely before 2031 and more likely around 2040.
Boral has also indicated that quarry operations would not commence until approximately 2038. But planning approvals granted today lock in land use outcomes for the long term. As the Chamber put it, the community deserves certainty about the character and future of the Gold Coast hinterland, not the shadow of an industrial quarry hanging over it for the next decade and beyond.
Why the Business Voice Matters
The Mudgeeraba Chamber of Commerce represents local businesses and the communities they serve across the Gold Coast hinterland. Their formal objection adds a voice that carries weight beyond community activism. It reframes the conversation around economic reality: the hinterland’s identity, its natural beauty, its lifestyle appeal, its tourism value and the reasons people choose to live and do business here are directly at stake.
Chamber President John Kennedy signed the submission, stating the organisation would continue to monitor the application and advocate strongly for outcomes that protect the community and environment.
The Chamber has encouraged its members and the broader community to make their voices heard directly.
