At Black Rock in Victoria, Barwon Water built one of Australia’s largest thermal biosolids drying plants. It was carefully developed, competitively tendered, tested on real material and placed beside the wastewater plant producing most of its feed. Even then, it took years longer than expected to commission and later operating problems still found their way beyond the dryer itself. That makes Black Rock a useful benchmark for the proposed Glan Devon biosolids-incinerator-fertiliser project in Queensland.

This long-form investigation follows the engineering, economics, approvals and operating history of Black Rock before turning the same questions on Glan Devon. The comparison raises a broader issue than whether one plant can technically be made to work. It asks how much should be known before a community is asked to accept the risk. And ultimately, it asks one very simple question:

Why Glan Devon?

Download the pdf here