Eden Project expects good news in new year

IT APPEARS to be a case of half enough is good enough for the Eden Project’s ambitions in Anglesea, with chief executive officer David Harland saying the water body does not need to be completely full for the $150 million eco-tourism proposal to be viable.

Mr Harland gave an update on the latest about Eden Project Anglesea at Monday’s meeting of the Alcoa Community Consultation Network, which drew a crowd of about 90 people to the Anglesea Senior Citizens Centre.

The mine filling with water more quickly than by natural means (which could take as long as 50 years) is a crucial factor for how Eden plans to use the site.

He revealed a graphic of how the water would flow as it rose higher in the mine, which he said showed the level would be good enough for Eden’s purposes when the mine was only 50 per cent (about 8-9 gigalitres) full – as opposed to 17 gigalitres at full capacity – and this could take as little as five years.

“The idea we can get the right amount of water for the project’s operations is new – you might say we should have known that, but it actually came out from the community meeting last time with the suggestion of a dam, which wouldn’t work.

“Projects evolve over time.”

Outside of natural fill, the three options are the restoration of Salt Creek (though this remains strongly opposed by the Department of Land Water and Planning), using the Upper Eastern View Formation aquifer, or pumping recycled water from Black Rock.

Eden is still waiting for certainty on who the planning authority for the project will be as well as how the water will be sourced to fill the mine, and had previously set a deadline of the end of 2019, but Mr Harland said he could not yet give a definite yes or no about whether Eden had approval to go ahead.

“If you’re coming tonight to expect some sort of announcement, good or bad, you’re going to be sadly or happily disappointed in either direction.”

Instead, he said Eden had “a commitment to commit” from the state government.

“It’s a bit like being engaged.

“Are we going to have a clear signal of intent? I think we will get there. I wish I could tell you that we had it right now, but we don’t quite.”