Mt Coot-tha Quarry History of Significant Events - 2016



2016
8th February
Philip Best lodges a damages claim with JTLA Lawyers regarding the cracks to our slab and the broken glass.
JLTA have never proceeded with resolving this claim, however LM Quirk advised in 2017 that the claim was progressing.
However we have not seen any evidence of this.

14th March
Philip Best lodges a damages complaint to the EHP Pollution Hotline regarding damage to his home from blast strong vibration.

4th April
Philip Best lodges a damages complaint to the EHP Pollution Hotline regarding the quarry manager forcing the Heilig technician to use a spoil spike even though the concrete block was already there.

4th June
Philip Best Lodges a complaint with the EHP department regarding the vibration damage to the new slan in our new home.
The EHP advised that this must be dealt with by the Mines Department.

10th June
Philip Best Lodges an RTI request for the Quarry Blasting Information and Emails.

13th June
The BCC Laywers JLTA advise that they have appointed King and Company Solicitors to act on their behalf regarding the damage to our property from blast vibrations.
As of 2018, King and Company have not done anything, however LM Quirk advises that the claim is progressing.

24th June
Philip Best organises a meeting of all residents at Steven Miles Electorate Office.
EHP Director and DNRM Mines Inspector attended along with Steven Miles and his staff.

11th July
Philip Best asks BCC Mr Terry Bird if the BCC could provide the estimated blast strength to the residents.
This information is readily available with the Blasting plan, however Mr Bird refuses to even acknowledge our email request.
This was followed by approximately 15 subsequent requests for the same information (to be provided with the notice of blast email).
In consideration that the maximum blast vibration is legally undefined on every 10th blast, this is an essential piece of information for the residents.

16th July
EHP organises an on-site meeting at the 159MCR monitoring point on Mt Coot-tha Rd.
Minister Miles as well as some EHP staff and local residents attended.
As you would expect, the blast was a very week one that I estimated to be 3mm/second which was correct.
Afterwards I wrote a report on what happened which included that Mr Bird stormed off when asked to answer residents questions.

3rd August
The quarry"s response to our July residents meeting was to let rip with the strongest blast for some years.
On the same day I hired a noise decibel datalogging metre from NV Engineers, to record the noise in my home.
Robert Bell, Quarry Manager, Emailed through the blast vibration reading for the massive blast.
To find out that the blast had exceeded the customary maximum of 10mm/second was no surprise when you consider the extreme decibel levels that were recorded on that day.
Please note that when ever any recordings are done in our house, that no person or animal is allowed to remain inside the house.

4th August
NV Engineers emailed the recorded data to me.

5th August
Philip Best imported the decibel data into excel and plotted the results as a chart.
The results showed that the home continued to vibrate for up to 60 seconds after the blast.
This is an extremely bad outcome for our new home which already had cracked floors.

9th August
Philip Best lodges a complaint to EHP and the Pollution Hotline.

16th August
Philip Best lodges a complaint with LM Quirk after EHP advises that cannot do any more to help about the Blasting.
22nd August
Philip Best calls on LM Quirk to close the quarry, which was supposed to happen in 2015.

31st August
Philip Best and some other resident attended the Kenmore Council Listens Forum.
We were not permitted to use the microphone to address the crowd.
After the forum, myself and others pleaded with Cr Matic and LM Quirk to stop damaging our precious homes.
I later wrote a report on what happened.

1st September
Philip Best writes to LM Quirk and Cr Matic following the Kenmore Council Listems Forum.
The email was to clarify soe of the things we said after the forum.

20th September
LM Quirk replies to our email and the pleading for their quarry to stop damaging our homes.

?? September
Philip Best writes and submits an AS2187 Appendix J Change Project Proposal to Standards Australia.
The Project Proposal is allocated the reference number PP1636

1st November
Philip Best has lengthy phone discussion with EHP Director Andrew Connor.
The following email was sent in with follow up information.

11th December
Philip Best writes to the Quarry Magazine, revealing the truth to correct what they said about the Mt Coot-tha quarry.

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