A TEMPORARY workers' village may offer the best hope for Mt Larcom to become a booming urban centre.
Col Tummon would welcome a workers village near Mt Larcom but expects government opposition. REN LANZON
Gladstone Regional Councillor and Mt Larcom Show Society chairman, Craig Butler, yesterday confirmed that Boulder Steel was interested in setting up a workers camp on land that would straddle show society and council land.
If it went ahead it would be a tremendous boost for the township, Cr Butler said.
If there is any substantial development in Mt Larcom it would mean we will be able to upgrade the water supply to the town which could be the catalyst for further development.
He said the benefit for the show society was that, when the construction of the Boulder Steel mill was completed, it would be able to use one of the buildings for its own purposes.
It will have kitchen and dining facilities that the society could not afford to build from its own resources.
Cr Butler said the show society and the council were trustees of their respective Crown lands and approval would have to be obtained from the government before the project could proceed.
Mt Larcom resident Col Tummon said a workers camp would also bring more immediate benefits because the workers would be able to shop in the township.
But he said he feared the Gladstone Economic and Industry Board, which had previously indicated opposition to proposed residential developments in or near the township, would also oppose the workers camp proposal.
The GEIDB also opposed a workers village at Euroa Homestead, which has all the necessary services nearby, on the grounds that it did not want a workers camp inside the state development area, although apparently it wont oppose such a camp on Curtis Island also within the SDA, he said
Boulder Steels project manager Ross Johnson said if the company was able to go ahead and build the camp, he expected it would accommodate between 300 and 500 people.
He said the company would engage people experienced in setting up camps to establish the accommodation.
It was agreed one camp building would be of a permanent nature and set close to the show societys existing infrastructure for later use as a pavilion with a built-in canteen.
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