2016-12-12 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                             12 DECEMBER 2016




The Noosa Biosphere ®, Noosa Parks Association in conjunction with The Thomas Foundation
and the University of the Sunshine Coast are the main partners to deliver the proposed oyster
reef restoration initiative.

2.   Status of application

To ensure that the oyster reef restoration proposal will not interfere with recreational pursuits
within Noosa River, it is proposed that all the oyster reef restoration units are located within an
area of the Declared Fish Habitat Area (state managed resource) of the Noosa River.

This requires a Resource Allocation Authority (RAA) from the DAFF, which will only be issued
where it can be demonstrated that the project will benefit the public. For this reason, the RAA can
only be issued to Noosa Council as a representative of the community.

Following the provision of a RAA, a development approval, from Council, would then be required
for Prescribed Tidal Works. The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, Maritime
Safety as well as the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries are concurrence agencies
for such an approval and their role is to ensure the project design is consistent with State
Planning Policies for their particular jurisdictions. Again this approval can only be issued to
Noosa Council as a representative of the community.

DAFF is co-operating to progress the application, however, despite positive evidence of this
project’s application elsewhere throughout the world, as oyster reef restoration is a novel concept
in Queensland policies do not currently exist within DAFF to allow for a straight forward approval
for oyster reef restoration.

DAFF has therefore proposed to issue a RAA to Noosa Shire Council to enable the submission
of the development application for the Oyster Reef restoration Units, subject to a number of
conditions. The exact wording of the proposed conditions is provided in Attachment 3 but the
conditions of note are summarised as follows:


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