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MEDIA RELEASE 16 April 2007 Don Burke to create wetland wonder CELEBRITY gardener Don Burke arrives on the Fraser Coast today (Apr 16) as part of a team which will create a wetland wonder for Hervey Bay. The TV star's green thumbs will work their magic at a site near the Pulgul Farm Storage Dam, not far from the Hervey Bay Airport, where some of the city's treated wastewater is held before it is recycled on to tree plantations, sugarcane farms and golf courses. "The wetland will be designed to protect local endangered species," said the project's Ern Manley. "We want all the local environmental groups to be part of this along with the schools and government departments. The project will be similar to Don's work at the Innisfail State High School. There will be cameras in breeding boxes in the trees, a demonstration fish hatchery and a large butterfly enclosure. It will be very exciting." Representatives of local environmental groups will hear more about the project at a presentation at Peppers Pier Resort on Tuesday April 17. The wetland project is part of a wider project between Wide Bay Water Corporation and Integrated Recycle International Queensland Pty Ltd. Currently based in Sydney, IRIQ is headed by Mr Manley and Norman Jennings of Dynamic Lifter fame, and has a massive holding in pet food, stock food, refrigerated storage and real estate. Last year IRIQ and WBWC entered into a ground-breaking contract to grow fish to produce a high protein product in the city's treated waste water. WBWC water research and training director Kelvin O’Halloran said: "IRIQ have been welcomed at Hervey Bay to introduce this industry that we all believe is potentially the most important of their interests, that is, the growing of fish in treated effluent waters to produce a sustainable source of high protein. With their recycling philosophy IRIQ saw a system which is high in nitrogen and phosphorus and therefore rich in protozoan, algae and plankton - all the things that fish eat - as an asset which is renewable because there is always going to be sewage. So if IRIQ produce a high protein source which from there, will be processed and pelletised into a food for the aquaculture or agriculture industry, then that must be a huge benefit and can only grow into a large industry." Mr. O'Halloran said the project was likely to initially deliver the equivalent of 30 to 40 jobs via the project's hatchery, pond management and processing plant. IRIQ will begin fitting pontoons on Monday April 16, at the storage dam which, in keeping with the project's theme, were recycled from the Gold Coast Sanctuary Cove development. Mr Manley and Mr Jennings said their company held worldwide patents for the project which they expected would be replicated in Australia and overseas. They said that Hervey Bay would be the model to assist in sustainable fish farming as the industry ballooned, because of declining wild fish stocks. "Wide Bay Water will always be IRIQ's research and development centre for all our processing organizations throughout the world. We are in consultation with other counties about this right now, all of which will come back to Wide Bay Water," said Mr Manley.
Blitz for our backyard... Norman Jennings, Don Burke and Ern Manley look over their plans in Sydney during the weekend for their innovative project which will soon take shape in Hervey Bay. For more details phone Kelvin O'Halloran, |
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