It's very difficult to say without knowing the status of the...

It's very difficult to say without knowing the status of the ERD. It can go back and forth with the office of the EPA and other DMAs multiple time before being accepted as suitable for assessment. Once it deemed as suitable for assessment, it goes before the EPA (which is a board of 5 people). They only meet once a month to discuss proposals. To get to be seen at a board meeting, the ERD needs to have been accepted by the office of the EPA at least ~5-6 weeks before the board meeting (as the EPA needs to have time to have read it before the meeting). After the board meeting it can take another 1-3 months for the final EPA assessment report to be prepared, draft conditions to be proposed (then reviewed and negotiated with the proponent) and then for the minister to sign off on the approval.

The office of the EPA is being very thorough these days. Certainly the amount of info and standard of EIA required is a couple of step changes from even 10 years ago. Just be glad its not a controlled action under the commonwealth EPBC Act. DCCEEW are being a nightmare at the moment. I actually would not be surprised if DCCEEW is a reason for the delays. They are consulted by the office of the EPA, and we have seen of late a number of projects that were not referred under EPBC where DCCEEW has insisted they are referred late in the day or they have required significant additional information via the consultation with the OEPA.