Visit to the beautiful Bellthorpe Stays, Sunshine Coast hinterland

 

Sooty Owl

I had intended for a long time to visit Bellthorpe Stays in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, an hour's drive from home in Nambour and not much further from Brisbane. Just never got around to it until now. Glenn and I last week had a very pleasant 4-day visit to this wonderful get-away nestled high in the wet forests where the Blackall Range meets the Conondale Range.

Bellthorpe Stays forest

Among the critters noted during our visit were Sooty Owl, Marbled Frogmouth, Lewin's Rail, Paradise Riflebird, Regent Bowerbird, Koala, Fawn-footed Melomys, Red-bellied Black Snake and loads more. All images on this post were taken during our visit.

Regent Bowerbird outside Bowerbird Cabin

Dave and Wendy Clark acquired this former dairy property in 2002 and have since turned it into a first-class ecotourism destination. A labyrinth of trails of varying lengths and grades criss-cross extensive stands of rainforest, towering wet sclerophyll forests, undulating grassy slopes and cascading waterfalls.

Cedar Cascades

Mighty red cedars festooned with epiphytes survived the loggers who worked these slopes in times long gone. The verandahs of well-appointed cabins atop the ridges offer stunning views of the surrounding mountains and forests. Creeks and ponds support an abundance of frogs including the threatened Giant Barred-Frog, along with Platypus and the localised Conondale Spiny Crayfish. Up in the rainforest lives the quaint Pouched Frog.

Red-bellied Black Snake

The Bellthorpe area retains some of the region's finest remaining stands of high altitude forest; at around 580m above sea level, the temperature is decidedly cooler than in the coastal lowlands. Bellthorpe Stays is accessed from Brisbane through Woodford and from the Sunshine Coast through Maleny.

Bellthorpe Stays property

The cabins provide all conceivable needs from a first aid kit and books and videos to an indoor fireplace and seriously comfortable beds and pillows. Visitors bring only their food and personal items. Cabins are enveloped by rainforest, unseen from each other.

King Parrots at the feeder

King Parrots dominate the verandah feeders. Short-eared Brushtail Possums, Short-nosed and Long-tailed Bandicoots forage at night on the lawn.

Bowerbird Cabin, inside and outside

Regent Bowerbirds, Satin Bowerbirds and Paradise Riflebirds are spotted through the cabin's roof-to-floor windows.

Paradise Riflebird

The 200-hectare property abuts Bellthorpe National Park. Nearby are the foundations and restored machinery from the long-disbanded Brandons sawmill.

Giant red cedar festooned with epiphytes

Further to the north stretches the Conondale Range, where conservationists worked hard to spare its forests from the developmental fate that ravaged the Blackall Range to the

Much biodiversity has been lost in the region, especially the subtropical lowland rainforests that are the refuge of rarities like the Black-breasted Buttonquail and Coxen's Fig-Parrot, the latter now likely extinct. It was more luck than anything that Bellthorpe escaped large-scale habitat destruction.

Short-eared Brushtail Possum

The area managed generally to keep off the radar - including for those of us who were busily surveying wildlife half a century ago across that region – due to poor access. It is only in relatively recent years that Bellthorpe Stays has been accessible by good bitumen roads. Property values in the area have soared recently as word gets around.

Bellthorpe Stays forest stream

Back to the critters. I located two pairs of Marbled Frogmouth a short walk from our cabin, one on each side of a ridge-line.

Marbled Frogmouth male - above & below

A Tawny Frogmouth perched on a post near the rainforest edge. These two species are often in close proximity but the Marbled Frogmouth – unlike its relative – is always inside the rainforest.

Tawny Frogmouth

In the same area as the Marbled Frogmouth pairs was a pair of Sooty Owls calling noisily to each other. Sufficient old growth trees remain on the property for resident Sooty and Masked Owls.

Sooty Owl

Crimson Rosella and Pale-headed Rosella occur side-by-side.

Crimson Rosella

As do Red-backed Fairywren and Variegated Fairywren.

Red-backed Fairywren

 

All three south-east Queensland scrub-wren species - Yellow-throated, Large-billed and White-browed -are common in the rainforest.

Large-billed Scrubwren

Little Shrike-thrush is often feeding with them.

Little Shrike-thrush

Around the bend from our cabin, called Bowerbird, a young Koala was located by Dave and I during a spotlighting foray.

Koala

Our thermal imagers tracked down a Fawn-footed Melomys.

Fawn-footed Melomys

I found two more melomys the next night along with an Eastern Ringtail Possum.

Eastern Ringtail Possum

Introduced Red Deer occur in small numbers in the surrounding open eucalypt woodlands but cats and other feral pests are happily scarce at Bellthorpe Stays. Although the weather is cooling in April, a large Red-bellied Black Snake baked in the sun on a creekside walking track. Two Lewin's Rails were calling nearby in dense waterside vegetation.

Red Deer

Wonder Brown was among the butterflies seen. Butterflies were scarce in the cool conditions but the property hosts a decent population of the scarce Richmond Birdwing.

Wonder Brown

Wompoo Fruit-Dove was out and about in small numbers.

Wompoo Fruit-Dove

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos frequently wheeled overhead. 

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Russet-tailed Thrush and Noisy Pitta called at dusk and dawn. This place was a joy. We'll be back.

Link to ebird list is here.

New man-made Sunshine Coast wetland

 

Great Egret

A newly created wetland on the southern outskirts of the Sunshine Coast is a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy landscape as the region's population continues to boom. The wetland on the junction of Central Way and Bells Creek Arterial Road is the kind of thing developers need to do a good deal more often.

The new wetland

I last headed to Bells Creek a few years ago. At that time it was a quiet road through farmland, big acreage blocks and pine plantations that ended at a pleasantly positioned boat ramp on the creek, not far from Pumicestone Passage. A pair of Shining Flycatchers was in residence there. Now, the newly built arterial road roars through this area, connecting the Bruce Highway to Caloundra and the densely crowded urban belt that extends north from there to Maroochydore. A sea of newly built homes surrounds an elaborate network of roads.

Australasian Darter

That urban conglomerate now extends southwards with the creation of the suburb of Aura. eventually providing homes to 50,000 people on top of the 380,000 souls already calling Australia's tenth largest city home. The Sunshine Coast is invariably the top - or among the top three - regional destination/destinations for Australians looking for a sea or tree change. That's understandable: its combination of subtropical climate, world-class beaches and a stunning mountainous hinterland is hard to beat.

New Wetland

The Sunshine Coast has it over other coastal hotspots like the Gold Coast largely because much of its natural environment remains intact, thanks in no small part to the relatively pristine floodplains of the Maroochy River; the Noosa Biosphere Reserve; and big hinterland national parks and reserves in the Conondale and Blackall Ranges.

The edge of the Aura residential development, framed by the Glass House Mountains

The rate of urban development, however, is dizzying. Urban sprawl to the south of the Aura real estate developments is exacerbated by new plans to build a holiday resort and music festival venue at Coochin Creek on the Pumicestone Passage. The Liberal National Party state government ignored its own professional planning advice by bulldozing the plan through. Ultimately, it seems only a matter of time before a continuous coastal urban corridor connects Noosa to the Queensland-New South Wales border.

Amid this gloomy outlook, it was a joy today to stroll around the artificial wetland being developed by civil contrator Shadforth, working for the creator of Aura – the Stockland property behemoth. The wetland includes one of the Sunshine Coast's largest and certainly now its most accessible freshwater reed-beds. My attention was draw to it by the recent occurrence there of an endangered Australasian Bittern, a very rare visitor to south-east Queensland.

Australian Reed Warbler

I had no trouble finding a few Little Grassbirds and Australian Reed Warblers in the reeds, while skulking Spotless Crakes called. Australasian Darter and Great Egret were about. I expect in the warmer months that some interesting birds will turn up. It's a small thing, this aquatic gem amidst the residential sprawl, but at least it's there.

Spotless Crake

If these urban developments are going to happen, we need to encourage developers to do whatever they can to protect remnant habitat because these refuges are increasingly important to shrinking wildlife populations. So on this one, a thumbs-up to Stockland.

NB: There is no public or street parking here. Room for a single vehicle at two access gates to the wetland.

New wetland access track

Foreign cash trail driving net-zero pressure: Charity's "secret net-zero strategy”

The following is the transcript of my Page One story in today's edition of The Australian newspaper. Habitat pics by Steven Nowakowski of wet sclerophyll forest that would have been lost if the Chalumbin wind farm had proceeded in north Queensland.

Secretive Sydney-based charity The Sunrise Project has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in donations from cashed up overseas financiers to spearhead the push for net zero emissions, allowing it to fill the coffers of Australian conservation groups turning a blind eye to mounting concerns about the environmental impacts of renewable energy projects.

Investigations by The Australian indicate conservation group Friends of the Earth, one of The Sunrise Project's donation beneficiaries, teamed up with wealthy overseas companies to back their plans to carve up pristine forest in north Queensland for a wind farm.

Friends of the Earth Australia has received more than $26 million in donations and “grant income” in recent years, giving it the resources to boost an increasingly fractious campaign to keep the broader environment movement onside in support of the zero net emissions push.

The Sunrise Project received almost $343.5 million between 2018 and 2024 in grants and donations, according to annual financial statements filed with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. Over the same period, the charity forked out more than $279 million in grants to groups and projects in Australia and overseas.

Sunrise has raised eyebrows by making $365,000 in payments to the controversial Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union. The charity is also under scrutiny by the Senate over an extraordinary admission that it held “strategy sessions” to hide the identity of funding sources.

The Sunrise Project has emerged as by far the most cashed up environmental lobby group in Australian history. FoE and Sunrise are registered charities, allowing tax deductibility for donations.

The Weekend Australian revealed recently growing divisions within the environment movement over the renewables push, with ecologists increasingly questioning the biodiversity and wildlife conservation costs of many projects, especially wind farms. Major conservation groups including Friends of the Earth, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Environmental Defenders Fund – along with the Greens - have been silent in the face of mounting concerns.

FoE financial reports show “grant income” increased from $402,785 in 2016 to $3,088,999 million in 2021, the peak year for receipts, with $1,985,968 received last year. A total of $14,965,551 was received in grant income between 2018 and 2025. As well, FoE listed a total of $11,640,085 in donations received between 2018 and 2025. The combined income from grants and donations over the same period was $26,505,636.

The amount of bank interest received by FoE jumped from $44,719 in 2023 to $104,378 last year, suggesting the group has amassed a substantial war chest. FoE Australia lists The Sunrise Project as a donor in annual reports. FoE Melbourne lists Sunrise as a financial supporter in its reports along with the Star of the South wind farm off the Gippsland coast in 2024 and 2025 reports.

The Australian reported last week that Star of the South and the Northern Silica Project, planned by Diatreme Resources to mine silica sand at Cape Flattery in north Queensland, had been awarded Major Project Status by the Albanese Government to fast-track environmental and financial approvals. The superannuation giant Cbus has a 10 per cent stake in Star of the South. Cbus and Diatreme Resources are chaired by national Labor president Wayne Swan, who denies having lobbied the government in support of either project.

The Sunrise Project 's financial statements show the charity received $4.7 million in donations and bequests in 2016, accounting for all but a small fraction of income. That sum had jumped to $53.2 million in 2021 and $75.3 million in 2024 in grants and donations. Funds for projects in Australia in 2024 amounted to $22,027,314, with $41,520,974 spent on overseas projects.

The Sunrise Project describes itself as a global network of independent organisations that share a common mission and common values. “We’re passionate about building networks who can drive the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy to reduce greenhouse pollution and create a healthy and prosperous future for everyone,” its website says. The charity was established in 2012 by John Hepburn, its current executive director, who previously led campaigns for Greenpeace Australia and co-founded FoE Brisbane.

Australian Electoral Commission records show the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees union received $165,000 in funding from Sunrise in the 2024-25 financial year; $50,000 in 2023-24; and $150,000 in 2022-23 - a total of $365,000 across three years.

John Helpburn - Facebook

All branches of the construction division of the CFMEU were placed into administration by the federal government in August 2024 following allegations the union has engaged in bullying, corruption and criminal infiltration.

A Sunrise spokesperson said the funds were paid to the union's maritime division to support its “policy advocacy to ensure responsible decommissioning of offshore oil and gas rigs at the end of their life so taxpayers aren’t left to clean up the mess”. The charity said the $165,000 payment in 2024-25 was made before the August 2024 administration development.

Cbus has been in the media spotlight recently with revelations that the superannuation fund's property developer, Earle Setches, was filmed in January dining on a yacht in Melbourne with underworld figure Mick Gatto. A CFMEU-appointed Cbus director, Lucy Weber, resigned last month following reports she was in a secret relationship with the union's former national secretary, Zach Smith.

Donations to Sunrise averaged $177,000 in 2023 but individual American and European donors forked out much more, with the United States identified as the largest source country for funds. Prominent among benefactors in 2023 was the California-based Sequoia Climate Foundation chaired by American hedge fund billionaire C. Frederick Taylor. Other well-heeled American donors included Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Zega Family Foundation, both based in New York, and the Washington-based Wallace Global Fund. Australian donors include Boundless Earth, founded by Sydney software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Mike Cannon-Brookes

Sunrise's combined revenue jumped from $86.4 million in 2022 to $121.9 million in 2023. While much of its work is focused in Australia, the charity supported pro-renewable projects in 31 other countries in 2023. Grants given to charities often have conditions governing how money is spent. FoE and Sunrise are not required to reveal the identity of donors or the quantities of individual donations and conditions attached to them.

During a hearing in February 2025 of the Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, Liberal senator Jane Hume read an email sent by Mr Hepburn to an unidentified foreign donor. Mr Hepburn wrote: “We have a strategy session with our lawyers and board to plan out our response. As part of this we are seeking advice on steps we might take to avoid disclosure, challenge and limit disclosure, or to ensure that any disclosure is limited to the committee members and is not made public. I do have concerns about the potential PR impact of disclosure of both our funding and grantees.”

Senator Hume told the committee she found it concerning that Mr Hepburn was potentially facilitating foreign donations and intentionally designing a scheme to avoid transparency in Australia.

A Sunrise spokesperson defended the right of donors to privacy: “Some funders are happy to be disclosed. Others request privacy and Sunrise respects this right to the extent possible alongside our compliance and reporting obligations - particularly in a context where the energy transition is so deeply politicised and fossil fuel interests are known to intimidate opponents.”

Under Australia's Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, entities are required to register certain activities if they are taken on behalf of a foreign principal; a foreign principal includes a “foreign political organisation”. Registrable activities include political lobbying and communications activities. Whether a foreign donor to an Australian charity engaged in political debate could potentially be regarded as a “political organisation” has not been tested.

A spokesperson for Sunrise said its foreign donors are not political organisations. An Attorney-General's Department spokesperson said exemptions from the scheme may apply to certain charity activities, but the department does not comment on its application to particular entities.

FoE's “grant income” spike of more than $3 million in 2021 coincides with a flurry of activity by the group on the renewables front, with leaked emails providing a rare insight into lobbying by some of the industry's biggest players. An email was sent in November that year by Matthew Stuchbery, then Australian vice-president of Danish renewables giant Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners Australia, to Ark Energy communications head Melissa Pisani and FoE national campaign director Cam Walker.

Cam Walker - Facebook

CIP is a key player in Australian renewable energy projects and the financier of the Star of the South wind farm. The company at the time was considering investing in a controversial wind farm, Chalumbin, planned by renewables heavyweight Ark Energy near Ravenshoe on Queensland's Atherton Tableland. Ark Energy is a subsidiary of Seoul-based Korea Zinc.

Referring to Mr Walker, Mr Stutchbery wrote: “We’ve worked closely with FoE in the context of Star of the South, and Cam has been very helpful in relaying information from their people in North Queensland.” Mr Stutchbery, until recently the chair of Queensland Renewable Energy Council, is now an advisor to CIP and Star of the South.

At the time as the CIP dispatch, Mr Walker wrote to Rainforests Reserves Australia vice-president Steven Nowakowski, a leading critic of Chalumbin. Mr Walker wrote: “Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners want to buy into the Chalumbin project but want to make sure it's going to be acceptable.”

The Chalumbin project, planned over a large area of wet sclerophyll forest adjoining the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, was withdrawn by Ark Energy in 2024 following years of fierce community opposition. Mr Nowakowski said he was astonished by Mr Walker's approach. “Cam wanted me to talk to senior Ark Energy and CIP people to find a way to get the Chalumbin wind farm approved,” he said.

Matthew Stutchbery

“I have been involved with conservation groups all of my life and I have never witnessed a conservation group working with multi-billion-dollar companies trying to get a development over the line. This was the most obscene development, hard up against a world heritage area with gorgeous forests, and FoE didn’t seem concerned about the forests, just focusing on its relationships with Ark Energy and CIP.”

Asked if the emails indicated a close working relationship between FoE and CIP, a CIP spokesperson said: “Friends of the Earth is one of many interested stakeholders our projects engage with as part of regular outreach activities.”

 Ark Energy declined to comment. Mr Walker insisted the email exchange was not intended to benefit Chalumbin: "Our engagement was focused on raising concerns about environmental risks and, where possible, discouraging investment in a proposal we considered inappropriate. Any suggestion we were working to facilitate or support the project is false." 

CIP got some bad news recently when authorities announced that Spain's biggest wind farm development, the Maestrazgo cluster of 120 wind farms, had been suspended pending the outcome of a corruption probe by the country's Civil Guard into environmental approvals obtained by Forestalia, the company that was initially developing the project. Maestrazgo was acquired by CIP in 2024. There is no suggestion CIP was involved in or was aware of wrong-doing.

Mr Walker was a witness at a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy last November. Mr Walker was asked by current Nationals leader Matt Cnavan about the nature of $1.6 million in grant income received by FoE in 2023.

Mr Walker responded: “It wouldn't be government granting; it would be philanthropic foundations.” Asked if money came from renewable energy companies, either directly or through other organisations, Mr Walker responded: “To the best of my knowledge, no.”

Financial support from Star of the South and The Sunrise Project are referenced in recent FoE reports. Misleading a committee hearing can be potentially regarded as contempt of the Senate. A FoE spokesperson said Mr Walker’s response was not misleading. 

Star of the South said the only money directed by the wind farm to FoE was $6,000 for the 2023 Transform Expo that show-cased renewable projects in Gippsland. Friends of the Earth said the money was not a donation but a fee for an “event cost”.

In response to The Weekend Australian's recent coverage of splits in the environment movement over renewables, Mr Walker said on Facebook: “The Australian exists to hurt green politics and it's always very unwise to rely it to push an issue.”

The Senate committee has been examining the use by Rainforest Reserves Australia of AI in editing submissions to government authorities about renewable energy projects, resulting in errors such as references to non-existent government bodies. Labor and Greens senators have joined with FoE in repeatedly attacking RRA over the editing. FoE says the committee is probing the “spread of disinformation”.

A fossil fuel industry submission to the committee makes a comparable mistake. Coal-mining industry advocate and former Bowen Coal chair Nick Jorss claimed in the submission that the Whitsunday Conservation Council was one of several groups funded by The Sunrise Project that was a “network of aligned entities” sustained by “foreign-linked funding streams”.

WCC secretary Faye Chapman said the claim is untrue. “Whitsunday Conservation Council has never received funding from The Sunrise Project,” Ms Chapman said. Mr Jorss conceded the claim “could be a mistake”. Mr Jorss said he stood by his submission's assertion that a “Sunrise blueprint has successfully captured Australia’s conservation movement”, while Sunrise and its donor recipients “turn a blind eye to tens of thousands of hectares of native habitat destroyed by large wind and solar projects”.

Groups to garner funding from Sunrise other than FoE include the Queensland Conservation Council, which received $89,118 in 2022-23; QCC describes Sunrise as a “major donor”. Climate Action Network Australia says Sunrise is a “generous donor”. The Capricorn Conservation Council acknowledges Sunrise donations of $11,111 in 2022 and $63,888 in 2023.

Sunrise defends its financial support for environmental groups. “The Sunrise Project's mission is to scale social movements to drive the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy as swiftly as possible,” a spokesperson said. “ We do this by supporting and collaborating with a wide range of community organisations to protect Australia's environment. The crisis in Iran shows that Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels isn’t just a climate issue, it’s a national security issue and a sovereign energy issue. Funding comes from philanthropic supporters, including Australian and international philanthropists, trusts and foundations that share a commitment to environmental protection and climate action.”

The monetary fortunes of Friends of the Earth and the Sunrise Project stand in stark contrast to the finances of Mr Nowakowski's Cairns-based Rainforests Reserves Australia, the leading conservation group opposing many renewables. A “dirt file” circulated to the media by the offices of federal environment minister Murray Watt and energy minister Chris Bowen makes much of the fact that in recent years, Mr Nowakowski has become a supporter of nuclear power as part of the energy mix.

Steven Nowakowski

“Mr Nowakowski’s conversion to nuclear power coincides with a dramatic change in the finances of the organisation he claims to represent,” the file says. The most recent returns for RRA show the group received $72,275 in donations from regional communities in 2023 and $101,934 in 2024. Mr Nowakowski said he has received a single payment related to nuclear power - funding from the Massachusetts Clean Air Task Force to allow him to attend a seminar on nuclear energy last year in Warsaw.

Respected long-time environmental activist and co-founder of the Australian Greens, Drew Hutton, said of groups receiving financial support from some donors: “You can’t keep an energy or mining company honest if you are accepting money from them. They are holding you hostage. The capture of an environmental NGO usually involves that organisation turning a blind eye to environmentally harmful activities they should be opposing.”

Drew Hutton

More stories :

https://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com/2026/02/battle-to-save-nature-from-net-zero.html?m=1

https://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com/2026/02/biodiversity-thrown-under-bus.html?m=1

https://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com/2026/03/fast-tracked-swan-firm-signs-china.html?m=1

 

Fast-tracked Swan firm signs China silica export deal

 

Cape Flattery sand-dunes

What follows is a transcript of my story in today's (23 March, 2026) edition of The Australian newspaper. Pics of Cape Flattery by Diatreme Resources.

A company headed by Labor powerbroker Wayne Swan given approval by the Albanese Government to fast-track a $10 billion project to mine silica sand to turbocharge the domestic solar energy industry will instead be exporting the product to Chinese and other foreign buyers.

The Northern Silica Project planned at Cape Flattery on Queensland's Cape York Peninsula by Brisbane-based Diatreme Resources was awarded Major Project Status last June by Industry Minister Tim Ayres, who promised the project would boost Australia's renewables sector.

The company has signed up to supply the silica to one of China's biggest solar energy product suppliers. A second renewables project connected to Mr Swan, the $11 billion Star of the South wind farm in Victoria, has also been awarded the coveted fast-tracking status.

Diatreme Resources has an agreement with Chinese solar giant Flat Glass Group to facilitate long-term binding off-take arrangements to supply silica from Cape Flattery. China is the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. No such agreements have been reached with Australian operators.

Mr Swan, the national ALP president and former deputy prime minister, is the chairman of Diatreme. He holds two million shares and 10,000 unquoted share options in the company.

The latest Australian Stock Exchange data shows that in 2024, 10 of the company's 20 top investors are Chinese or Chinese-born Australian citizens and entities with close ties to China, holding collectively almost 626 million shares.

Current Diatreme director and former chairman, Chinese-born Cheng Weng, has lived in Australia since 2002. A former Diatreme director, Chinese businessman Yufeng Zhuang, was the company's fourth biggest investor in 2024, holding 152 million shares.

Mr Ayres said at the time of his decision to fast-track Diatreme's Cape Flattery plans that major project status approvals are a crucial part of the government’s Future Made in Australia strategy. Referring to Northern Silica, given the approval a month after the minister was sworn in following the federal election, he said: “The project will supply essential materials for domestic manufacturing of solar panels, silicon wafers and high-end electronics.”

Industry Minister Tim Ayres - Facebook

The minister added: “These are key components in the global clean energy and tech supply chains. Backing in renewable energy projects strengthens and diversifies the local supply chain while directly creating regional job opportunities and attracting further investment.” Silica is the key raw material used in solar panel production.

Yesterday, Mr Ayres backed away away from earlier assurances that the project would boost domestic renewable energy projects. “Major Project Status is granted to projects that strengthen industrial and critical mineral supply chains, boost low-emissions energy and storage, and deliver secure well-paid jobs for Australian workers,” a spokesperson told The Australian.

The minister's department says the approvals enable strategically significant projects to get extra support and co-ordination. That includes a single entry point for Australian Government approvals; help with engaging state and territory facilitation agencies to navigate regulatory approvals; a dedicated case-manager inside the federal bureaucracy; and fast-tracked environmental and financial assessments.

Diatreme workers at Cape Flattery

Diatreme Resouces chief executive Neil McIntyre said the project had the potential to produce 121 million tonnes of silica products over 25 years with annual target production of three million tonnes rising to five million tonnes. The company has suggested previously it could mine enough to produce three billion solar panels, offsetting the emissions of 4.25 million cars. With a current export price of $81 per tonne, the company estimates annual sales revenue of $391 million, with gross revenue over 25 years of production estimated at $9.8 billion.

Other than its Chinese contract, Diatreme has negotiated a sales agreement with Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co and has a strategic partnership with Belgium-based Sibelco, which is expected to take 25 per cent of exports. Mr McIntyre said other markets could include South Korea and Taiwan, although “at this stage Diatreme is yet to confirm final export arrangements”.

Asked to what extent Northern Silica would contribute to the domestic manufacturing of solar panels, silicon wafers and high-end electronics - as promised by Mr Ayres – Mr McIntyre said: “While there is strong demand from Asian markets, Diatreme is exploring both domestic and export markets as potential buyers of future output. Diatreme welcomes the government's focus on critical minerals including solar panel manufacturing which could potentially drive increased domestic demand for its products.”

Diatreme chairman Neil McIntyre

The company has plans for a second mining project, Galalar Silica, also in the Cape Flattery area. Diatreme Resources is also proceeding with its Cyclone Zircon Project plans to mine up to 1,000 kilotonnes of zircon in Western Australia's Eucla Basin.

At the time of Mr Swan's appointment as Diatreme chairman in December 2021, Mr McIntyre described it as a “huge coup” for the company. His shares aside, the value of Mr Swan's renumeration in 2024 was $121,164, including $32,164 in share options. Figures for 2025 are not yet available.

Diatreme has lodged an environmental impact statement for the project, 35 kilometres north of the Hope Vale indigenous community, with the Queensland Government. It is located close to the existing operations of the Mitsubishi Corporation-owned Cape Flattery Silica Mines.

Mr Swan denied lobbying the Albanese Government to favour the project. “Neither I, nor anyone acting on my instruction, sought to communicate with any MP, minister or federal government officer about major project status approval for the Northern Silica Project before approval was granted,” he told The  Australian.

Mr Swan is also chairman of the superannuation giant Cbus, from which he received remuneration of $234,300 in the financial year to June 2025.

Wayne Swan - Facebook

Cbus has a ten percent stake in the Star of the South wind farm off the coast of Victoria's Gippsland. Like Diatreme, Star of the South has been granted Major Project Status approval. The Albanese Government has declared 15,000 square kilometres of offshore waters in the region as being suitable for renewable energy projects.

Last December – a month after the government renewed the approval - the Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners-majority owned project submitted an environmental impact statement to the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).

At the time of Cbus's investment in 2022, the year Mr Swan became the fund's chairman, the wind farm operator said in a statement: “CIP is pleased to continue to strengthen our long-term partnership with Cbus, a superannuation fund that shares a similar perspective as CIP on the importance of clean energy resources.”

The developers describe Star of the South as Australia’s most advanced offshore wind project with the potential to power 1.2 million homes, suppling up to 20 per cent of Victoria’s electricity needs.

A Cbus spokesperson said Mr Swan had not discussed the wind farm's major project status with the Albanese Government.

The Weekend Australian reported recently claims by ecologists that in the rush for net zero emissions by 2050, controversial projects like Borumba Hydro and the Gawara Baya wind farm in Queensland are being fast-tracked when the developers' own reports point to endangered wildlife and biodiversity being at risk.

Diatreme workers at Cape Flattery

Another Queensland Labor powerbroker, Mike Kaiser, was appointed by the Albanese Government to head DCCEEW last July, overseeing the environmental approval process.

From 2021 to 2024, when numerous renewables were approved in Queensland, Mr Kaiser variously headed the state departments of resources; development, infrastructure, local government and planning; and the premier and cabinet. A former Queensland ALP secretary, he was forced to quit as a state MP after admitting in 2001 to being fraudulently involved in Labor Party branch-stacking.

Ties between Queensland Labor and the renewables sector run deep. Mr Kaiser's former boss, Annastacia Palaszczuk, resigned as Queensland premier in December 2023. Six months later she was appointed International Ambassador for the Smart Energy Council.

Ms Palaszczuk's first official act was to lead a delegation to China that was focused on promoting co-operation between the Australian and Chinese renewable energy industries, specifically in solar energy and storage. Ms Palaszczuk declined to respond to questions about whether she has discussed Diatreme's project with the Chinese.

Her former second-in-command in government, Jackie Trad, was appointed chief executive officer of the Clean Energy Council last August. The former deputy premier heads the peak body for the developers of Australian renewables.

Annastacia Palaszczuk

The Albanese Government joined the then Miles state Labor government in submitting a tentative World Heritage listing to UNESCO for 137,000 square kilometres of Cape York Peninsula in June 2024. The proposal followed a report by an independent scientific panel of experts to DCCEEW highlighting the region's world heritage values. The report referred to the cape's “spectacular” silica sand dune systems,with Cape Flattery having some of the largest, well-developed parabolic dunes in the world.

The Crisafulli Liberal National Party government in Queensland ordered a review of the World Heritage submission in January 2025. Federal environment minister Murray Watt said the Albanese Government remained committed to the proposal but needed to await the outcome of the state review.

Rainforest Reserves Australia vice-president Steve Nowakowski said an important issue in the rush to zero net emissions is critical mineral and rare earth mining.

“Not only is the number of renewable projects staggering across the country, but to facilitate the roll-out of this infrastructure requires critical mineral and rare earth mining of the likes never seen before,” Mr Nowakowski said.

“Cape Flattery is an area of outstanding beauty and high biodiversity. The Diatreme mine is in an area assessed as having world heritage values. Do we destroy our national heritage in the pursuit of green energy? ”

Mr McIntyre defended Diatreme's environmental stance. “Diatreme is dedicated to minimising the environmental impact of its operations and promoting responsible environmental practices across all levels of the organisation, including active rehabilitation programs,” he said.

“There are already significant areas identified and protected throughout Cape York Peninsula regionally and these are excluded for development and exploration purposes – Diatreme supports this approach.”

Diatreme's zircon project in WA

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