Gladstone SDA success stories

• Australia Pacific LNG

  Testimonial: LNG industry milestone for Gladstone State Development Area

  Five years after receiving project approval from the Coordinator-General, Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) celebrated the first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) leaving its facility in Gladstone on January 9, 2016. Origin's Group Manager Pipelines & Networks Operations, David Johnson shares with us his experience in working with the Office of the Coordinator-General throughout the project.

  

  Located nine kilometres north-west of Gladstone, the APLNG plant on Curtis Island is one of three LNG plant and pipeline projects facilitated by the Coordinator-General within the Gladstone State Development Area (SDA) and the Callide Infrastructure Corridor SDA.

  As a joint venture between Origin, ConocoPhillips and Sinopec, the APLNG project includes a processing plant and export facility and 750 kilometres of underground gas transmission pipelines from the Walloons Gasfields.

  To help facilitate the LNG projects, the Coordinator-General extended and varied the Gladstone SDA to include land on Curtis Island, where the LNG plants are now located, and identified a multi-user infrastructure corridor to contain underground gas transmission pipelines through to the plant sites on Curtis Island. The Coordinator-General also declared the Callide Infrastructure Corridor SDA to provide for the transportation of coal seam gas (CSG) to the Gladstone SDA, via underground transmission pipelines.

  David Johnson said the Office of the Coordinator-General's facilitation of the development provided a valuable benefit to the delivery of the project and ongoing operation of the assets.

  “The coordinated approach by the Office of the Coordinator-General was paramount in achieving project milestones by ensuring APLNG, landholders and the general community were adequately consulted; desired outcomes were effectively negotiated; and Government, gas proponents, landholders and the community worked together to achieve a common goal,” David said.

  The Coordinator-General's SDA team worked with APLNG, along with other gas proponents for the Gladstone LNG Project and the Queensland Curtis LNG Project to coordinate the assessments and access to land for the three projects, while reducing impacts on the community and environment within the Gladstone SDA and the Callide Infrastructure Corridor.

  David said the SDA licences in the common corridor provided structure and process, allowing the three gas proponents to achieve a coordinated approach rather than trying to negotiate individual outcomes with common landholders.

  “Without the coordination and development of a common corridor facilitated by the Coordinator-General's team, it would have been left to gas proponents to individually negotiate easements with respective landholders. This would have caused considerable and unnecessary stress on individual landholders.

  “The certainty of access for construction within the SDA also meant that construction methods, materials and design could be managed more effectively in a common corridor, with less impact on landholders.

  “The regular meetings, as required under the corridor licences, between gas proponents and the SDA team coordinators, provided a forum for gas proponents to discuss any issues or concerns they may have had whereby each could learn from and ensure that design and construction efficiencies from a coordinated approach between proponents could be identified. This was vital to the successful construction of all three transmission pipelines in a timely manner.”

  David said his experience with the APLNG project demonstrated that the Gladstone SDA and Callide Infrastructure Corridor offered definite economic and social benefits to business, industry and the community.

  “Hubs such as Gladstone were able to take advantage of the increased employment and procurement opportunities. Local businesses such as hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, transport and construction saw benefits from increased trade and in turn were able to create additional employment opportunities.

  “By recognising the emerging CSG-LNG export industry and supporting a dedicated LNG precinct on Curtis Island, Queensland is building a world class LNG industry for Australia.”

• Alpha HPA

  Alpha HPA chose the Gladstone State Development Area as the primary location for us to develop our HPA first project because of the proximity to industrial services in the Gladstone region but also because our key business partner, Orica is located there who is a key supplier of reagents to our process.  Economic Development Queensland have been fantastic to deal with both in the initial land option agreement and then the final purchase of the land. They accommodated a number of modifications to the agreement that supported our project and its progression and the people at EDQ are highly motivated to make things happen for Alpha HPA.

  Rob Williamson, Chief Operations Officer Alpha HPA

• Southern Oil

  The Queensland Government has successfully negotiated the attraction of Southern Oil’s $16 million Advanced Biofuels Pilot Plant to be built in Gladstone.

  Southern Oil’s Advanced Biofuels Pilot Plant will be Australia’s first commercial-scale advanced biofuels production facility. One million litres of fuel are anticipated to be produced within the next three years. Advanced biofuels production will support the US Navy’s Great Green Fleet initiative.  The Australian Navy, Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia airlines are also investigating options for locally-produced aviation biofuel.

  Southern Oil Refinery considered a number of options, including Western Australia and Victoria, when looking to establish a new waste lube oil refinery. Queensland was selected as the most viable market, largely due to its sustainable and export-oriented industrial biotechnology and bioproducts sector. The Queensland Government was also able to provide investment certainty and support.

  Managing Director at Southern Oil Refinery, Tim Rose, said one of the main reasons that the business, which has been operating an interstate refinery since 2001, was persuaded to come to Queensland was because there were fewer barriers and more state government “enthusiasm”.

  “In Queensland we were able to get land, which Trade & Investment Queensland helped us source, and we were able to buy in a State Development Area through the Queensland Government,” Mr Rose said.

  “The State Development Area made it a lot easier in terms of getting the approvals and getting physically going and building the plant.

  “It saved us about 18 months on a normal approval process that we would have had to go through in the other states.

  “The simplicity and speed with which we could get our project up and running meant we could spend our money earlier on actually building the plant rather than on extended planning and approvals processes and all the costs of associated consultancies,” Mr Rose said.

• Gladstone SDA maps and land use precincts

  The Gladstone SDA regulation map ( 2.9 MB) defines the boundary of the declared Gladstone SDA.

  The Gladstone SDA development precinct map ( 2.9 MB) forms part of the development scheme and identifies the precincts within the Gladstone SDA.

• Gladstone SDA development scheme

  The Gladstone State Development Area Development Scheme ( 1.6 MB) is a regulatory document that controls planning and development within the Gladstone SDA. The development scheme contains a development assessment framework for making, assessing and deciding applications and requests relating to development within the Gladstone SDA.

  The SDA Development Scheme outlines development which is SDA assessable and SDA self-assessable. All other forms of development continue to be regulated by other authorities, which may include Gladstone Regional Council, Gladstone Ports Corporation Limited or the State Assessment and Referral Agency.

  The development scheme is supported by a Public consultation policy ( 65 KB) that provides information on matters the Coordinator-General may consider when determining whether public consultation of an SDA application is required.

• Making an SDA application or request

  The Coordinator-General assesses and decides all SDA applications and requests within the Gladstone SDA.

  View information on how to make an SDA application or request, including pre-lodgement consideration, relevant fees and an online application form.

• Variations to the Gladstone SDA and development scheme amendments

  First approved by the Governor in Council in 2001, the development scheme has been amended numerous times. The current version was approved in May 2022 following an extensive strategic review.

  Previous versions of the Gladstone SDA Development Scheme:

  • Development scheme for the Gladstone State Development Area (November 2015) ( 9.2 MB)
  • Development scheme for the Gladstone State Development Area (September 2012) ( 264 KB)
  • Development scheme for the Gladstone State Development Area (December 2010) ( 186 KB)
  • Development scheme for the Gladstone State Development Area (July 2008) ( 268 KB)

  Previous version of the regulation map:

  • Gladstone SDA regulation map (October 2015) ( 2.7 MB)
  • Gladstone SDA regulation map (November 2010) ( 1.5 MB)

• Land use protocol

  The land use protocol ( 11.3 MB) sets out the procedures governing access to, exit from, and use of the Materials Transportation and Services Corridor precinct of the Gladstone SDA. The protocol applies to all persons authorised, permitted, or licensed to use the Materials Transportation and Services Corridor precinct.