The Borumba Pumped Hydro Project is a pumped hydro energy storage project proposed at Lake Borumba, near Imbil, west of the Sunshine Coast.
Watch a quick ABC news video about ecological concerns: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-20/borumba-pumped-hydro-environment-concerns/104602104
Comments close midday Monday 10 March 2025.
The Borumba Pumbed Hydro Energy Storage System will ultimately require 1500 ha of clearing within a Project Area that is approximately 5,235ha.
The Exploratory project has a total footprint of 85.3 ha and are known or likely to impact:
Two threatened ecological communities (TEC):
– Lowland Rainforest of Subtropical Australia TEC ...
The Borumba Pumped Hydro Project is a pumped hydro energy storage project proposed at Lake Borumba, near Imbil, west of the Sunshine Coast.
Watch a quick ABC news video about ecological concerns: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-20/borumba-pumped-hydro-environment-concerns/104602104
Comments close midday Monday 10 March 2025.
The Borumba Pumbed Hydro Energy Storage System will ultimately require 1500 ha of clearing within a Project Area that is approximately 5,235ha.
The Exploratory project has a total footprint of 85.3 ha and are known or likely to impact:
Two threatened ecological communities (TEC):
– Lowland Rainforest of Subtropical Australia TEC, Critically endangered
– Subtropical eucalypt floodplain forest and woodland of the New South Wales North Coast and South East Queensland bioregions, Endangered
• Nine threatened flora:
– ball nut, Vulnerable
– brush sophora, Vulnerable
– Coleus omissus, Endangered
– Coleus torrenticola, Endangered
– macadamia nut, Vulnerable
– native guava, Critically endangered
– scrub turpentine, Critically endangered
– small-fruited Queensland nut, Vulnerable
– three-leaved Bo sistoa, Vulnerable
• Twelve threatened fauna:
– Australian lungfish, Vulnerable
– black-breasted button-quail, Vulnerable
– giant barred frog, Vulnerable
– glossy black-cockatoo (south-eastern), Vulnerable
– greater glider, Endangered
– grey-headed flying-fox, Vulnerable
– koala, Endangered
– long-nosed potoroo (northern), Vulnerable
– Mary River cod, Endangered
– Mary River turtle, Endangered
– white-throated snapping turtle, Critically endangered
– yellow-bellied glider (southern subsp.), Vulnerable.
The unmitigated potential impacts associated with the Project include:
• Direct impacts such as vegetation clearing and topsoil removal causing habitat loss, and injury and mortality from
vegetation clearing and collisions with vehicles.
• Indirect impacts such as:
– habitat fragmentation
– edge effects
– habitat degradation from air, noise, vibration and light emissions
– invasive pests, weeds and pathogens
– contamination from hazardous materials
– erosion and sedimentation
– impacts to surface water quality
– impacts to groundwater.
• Facilitated impacts to housing and roads.
• Cumulative impacts with other works being undertaken in the region to facilitate the Project (e.g. local road upgrades) and with other Projects proposed in the region
Mary River Turtle image credit:
Long Nose Potoroo image credit: By Gunjan Pandey - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73576770
Borumba Pumped Hydro (SE QLD) exploratory works are a big step towards the construction of the 1500 ha Borumba Pumped Hydro scheme. We have serious concerns about this project due to the threatened flora and fauna that will be decimated by drilling, clearing and then flooding.
This is a vast and invasive project by any measure and there is simply no way to rehabilitate these mature forests once they've been destroyed. Once construction commences, it will be difficult to stop the momentum and the project will carry on for years in development. Unique, delicate ecosystems will be destroyed, forest cleared and fragmented for new roads and infrastructure, and all will be flooded. These actions will likely imperil the existence of a large array of threatened species including endangered Mary River Turtles and the critically endangered White throated Snapping Turtles.
Threatened Koalas, Glossy Black-cockatoos, Greater Gliders , Long-nosed Potoroos (Northern), White-throated Needletails and Yellow-bellied Gliders are confirmed to inhabit the exploratory site.
The destructive and costly nature of pumped hydro construction is already on full display with the failed Snowy Hydro 2 project in NSW. This makes headlines regularly with broken machinery, delays in timelines, unexpected technical problems, worker safety issues and phenomenal cost blowouts.
Our unique habitat and threatened wildlife are too much to gamble on for Borumba Pumped Hydro. The exploratory works should be rejected and the project should now be stopped.