Ipswich council mine site probed over alleged illegal dumping

The company was found to have been crushing concrete without environmental approvals. It was ordered to cease mechanical waste processing and operating as a resource recovery and waste transfer station. The company is disputing the fine.

Ipswich Earthmoving Equipment manages the Wattle Glen mine site on behalf of New South Wales firm Colmine Consulting, which has a month-to-month licence from the council to operate it.

The council is also investigating activities at the mine site, which can legally only receive clean soil or inert material for use to reclaim the former mine void. Any other type of waste must be taken to a registered landfill where the Queensland waste levy of $75 a tonne is payable and hazardous material, such as asbestos, can be safely dealt with.

“Council is conducting its own investigations to determine whether the site is being used for lawful purposes and in accordance with the contractual arrangement that is in place for the rehabilitation of the former mining void,” Ipswich City Council chief executive David Farmer said.

“Council will take appropriate action, if required and in accordance with our legal obligations, once investigation findings have been assessed.”

The Waste Recycling Industry Association of Queensland alerted the Environment Department to alleged illegal dumping at the mine site in early 2020, but official correspondence shows it knew of such allegations at least six months earlier.

Earlier this year, Brisbane Times was shown video of semi-trailers appearing to dump hundreds of tonnes of unprocessed general construction waste at the site.

Mr Halpin, who owned Ipswich Earthmoving Equipment until 2015 and now describes himself as a consultant to the company, said “close to a year ago”a convoy of trucks had mistakenly brought general waste to the mine site, but the material had immediately been removed.

“On one occasion on a Saturday morning, material was disposed of at the site. It was removed the following Tuesday,” he said.

“They turned left instead of right at the roundabout. It was a simple mistake by the truck driver.”

The mine is located to the north of a roundabout on Redbank Plains Road, which has to its south a number of waste recycling businesses.

Since last month, the sole shareholder and director of Ipswich Earthmoving Equipment has been 23-year-old Senna Baluskas.

Brisbane Times sought an interview with Mr Baluskas and was introduced to his father, Miguel Baluskas, who said his son “has not started yet” and was unavailable. Miguel Baluskas also described himself as a consultant to the company, but said he was authorised to speak on its behalf.

As part of the Crime and Corruption Commission’s Operation Windage probe of Ipswich City Council, former council chief operating officer of works, parks and recreation Craig Maudsley was charged in 2017 with misconduct in public office in relation to the letting of a contract to operate the Wattle Glen site in 2014.

The case is yet to be heard.

In May 2019, the owner of the company that won the Wattle Glen contract, Wayne Innes, was convicted of offences related to his dealings with council over the site and served 12 months of a four-year jail term.

In 2018, while Ipswich City Council was in administration, it extended the arrangement under which Colmine Consulting runs the site, using an exception in local government procurement rules that allow large contracts to be extended without having to go out to tender.

The Wattle Glen mine, later known as Noblevale No.1, operated in the first half of the 20th century.