News Service from House Harris

Qld: Dam opponents celebrate delay

BRISBANE, Nov 25 AAP - Glenda Pickersgill took some time answering media calls on Tuesday morning - she was knee-deep in the Mary River, celebrating a temporary reprieve from the controversial Traveston Crossing Dam.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh on Tuesday said the dam, proposed for the Mary River near Gympie, would be delayed by several years after the state's coordinator-general found it needed greater environmental safeguards.

Ms Pickersgill, a farmer and executive member of the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group, said she had joined opponents of the dam in a celebratory dip.

"There's a lot of celebration going on at Traveston Crossing at the moment - we've just been down in the water, in the Mary River," she said.

"This is a huge sign that the dam just doesn't stack up.

"Anna (Bligh)'s acknowledging that now."

Ms Pickersgill's 69 hectare family grazing property faces inundation under the dam proposal.

"It's prime agricultural land and we've had it over 30 years," she said.

She said the dam planning process had been a "debacle" and the area had lost skilled people and businesses.

"The social cost has been huge, and clearly right from the start there was huge doubt they'd ever meet federal approval," Ms Pickersgill said.

The state government now had an opportunity to improve water quality in the Mary River, she said.

Ms Pickersgill said she had never contemplated selling her land.

"What I've got money can't buy," she said.