I dunno about you but does this "buy-back" sound a bit "weak" considering the disruption caused by the Govt?
Should a resumption occur without all approvals in place?
Just not very "Australian" to me.

It's final then! She's conceded!

10 days doesn't run out until Friday (?) - but the "proposed" decision is (obviously) now final (but not official until Friday). This is her "officially" throwing in the towel. This is the official "surrender" - held on the deck of the battleship "Mary" (nearly Missouri).

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Signed, sealed and delivered.

What a con artist!!
This is not "generous" this is a total con.

Some people sold their land two years go to the government, now she's asking them to buy it back for the same price???? Who is she fooling.

While real estate values have gone up during those two years -- wheres her compensation for stress, out of pocket expenses, suffering, inconvenience..

WHAT A BLOODY RIP OFF!!

tell her to bugger off and come back with a better deal

how dare she be so demeaning as to consider the buy back offer "generous"?

this woman is unstoppable - I any of her team can sleep at night is way beyond me ....

Go away Anna -- go look for a job, or go h ome and make cakes or something ... but get out of our hair!

as much as i would like to see the area recover and get back to some sense of normality, i hope the previous owners tell her to shove this deal where it hurts the most.

just incredible.

bye bye bligh.

just dunno, do u?

Yes.... totally......what they said - me too. Just got carried away with the finality there..... the prospect and weight lifting from my mind.

I like your passion, nb. We need more passion.......

I very much doubt that I would entertain the purchase (or repurchase) of any of this land.

Those who opposed MaryDam Mk1 (TravDam) celebrated Federal Labor’s decision to stop State Labor’s project when Garrett blocked it citing the unacceptable impacts (serious and irreversible effects) on nationally listed species such as the Australian lungfish, the Mary River turtle and the Mary River cod.

State Labor then switched into selling another ‘big project’ - desalination plants - and threatening significant increases in charges for water services.

It may take five years, it may take ten, but MaryDam is almost certainly going to come back. It is a very big project (plenty of gravy for the ‘mates’) and Federal Labor’s population growth strategy will ensure that demand for water in the heavily populated areas in and around Brisbane will outstrip supply capacity.

MaryDam Mk2 will address all of the major show-stopping issues that prevented the Traveston project from going ahead. Indeed, it will be interesting to watch as State Labor now introduces various initiatives to ‘save’ the listed species identified during the TravDam saga, in accordance with Federal Labor’s wishes, as expressed in the TravDam rejection.

At some point in the not too distant future, when SEQ is again locked in drought, with dwindling water supplies and a much larger thirsty population, the State government of the day will unveil MaryDam Mk2.

This time around there will be no knock-back by the Federal government, because the project will address all of those serious and irreversible effects on nationally listed species that stopped TravDam. The listed species will be breeding and maintaining (perhaps even increasing) their populations at various other sites, and the new project will have a beautiful green sheen. And MaryDam Mk2 will go ahead.

It is evident that Australian federal government supports a policy of massive population increase as a significant driver of economic growth, and with around half a million newcomers pouring into the country each year the demands on already over-stretched infrastructure are going to have significant game-changing repercussions.

Given that Labor (state and federal) envisages a sea of asphalt, concrete drives and tiled roofs stretching from Coolangatta to Toowoomba to Noosa, MaryDam Mk2 is all but inevitable.

Caveat Emptor.

Is Captain Anna Bligh just trying to get back to everyones good books I wish the Mary Valley residents can get back on with their lives but she has to be kidding I would make them give me the land and also the money its really worth.
Hope the legal eagles have a field day

there's a little old saying, involving the jaws of gift horses...

i would imagine the government is under no obligation to sell the lands back at all.

Why should they get it back cheap.
They were paid above market rates and then got to rent for peanuts.
These properties now belong to the QLD taxpayer and should not be sold for less than market value.
I know if i was a seller who hoped to get my property back, i would have put the cash in a term deposit for the day when this offer came.
If any of them didnt do that, then too bad for them

I have a solution for afew of our problems.Lets get Capn Bligh to agree to a few little provisos first.
1) all the sale money for the EX Traveston dam acquired properties goes into the Kawana Hospital fund held in trust
2) all the properties that ex owners dont want back get auctioned off within a 3 month period
3) Auctioneers are Coast agents lets say Amber Werchon and Loren Whimhurst 2 gals who can get the job done
4) we restrict building tenders to local builders lets say Evans harch and RGD both active in large projects within a kilometer radius of the proposed site of the hospital.Local jobs ,local suppliers .
Then we ask uncle Kevin for a grant to get things up and running .a few sausage sizzzzles a couple of balls ,public donations ,or maybe the scam to end all scams apublic float aka Myers and TPG .. we register a holding company in the Cayman Islands held by another in the Netherlands holding a $2 shelf company in Oz and maybe we get enough for two hospitals but we may need a few volunteers to go to the caymans and bring back suitcases of cash...any volunteers????
So two problems solved in one i should be in politics maybe as the Common sense Party....or does that sound to much like the communist Party???/

Sorry Brodie but there is no common sense IN politics - just like there isn't common sence in law these days.
Somebody must take the blame !!!

THe Acquisition of Land Act requires that if land taken (by either agreement or resumption) by a Constructing Authority is no longer required and is within 7 years of the land being taken, the constructing authority is required to offer the land to the former owner at a price set by the CEO of the Department that administers the Valuation of Land Act.

So the Govt can set whatever price that they want. It does not even have to be market price.

The previous owner has 28days to accept the offer or it will lapse and the land placed on the open market.

So if you have upset the Govt the chances are the price will be higher than the land is probably worth.

Sorry I hit the sumit button before I could finish.

So the Captains 12 month thing is not correct and so is some of the other stuff. The govt can decide that the time to decide to re-puchase could be longer but the Act clearly says 7 years so I do believe that they are trying to push owners.

It is big of the govt to scrap stamp duty etc but what about people who used the govt money to pay out mortgages. They will now have to go to a bank to reborrow money to purchase land at an inflated price (ie more than it is actually worth). I would think that they would have buckley's chance of getting a bank to loan the money.

The State Government says it will waive stamp duty charges and pay for legal fees under a buy back scheme for Mary Valley landowners. The normal rules had been waived so that former Mary Valley landowners could buy their land back at the same price they sold it for.

The affected former owners, or at least those who are in a position to take up the offer will greet this with some enthusiasm.

I am however disgusted at the attitude of some who feel that they have been amply rewarded by the state with the purchase of their properties and don’t deserve any consideration with the new circumstances.

These are people whose lives have been turned upside down since discovering that their property rights and security of tenure meant nothing if the state government had an idea.

The purchase of their land and homes was only “voluntary” from the point of view that they had the option of selling out or being forced off, by armed police if necessary.

One thorn in the side of this offer is the statement by Cr Engeman that he wants “a master plan for the Mary Valley that will benefit the whole of the Gympie region and will in turn create a jewel in the crown of southeast Queensland.” He wants the state government, Gympie Regional Council and the community to decide the future of the area, - you just can’t allow the residents and landowners do their own thing.

The Mary Valley will no doubt evolve in its own way in the future in its own time as the people of the area do their own thing without the need for “master plans” for turning it into some councilors image of what it should be. They have just suffered three and a half years of agony from Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh’s master plan for the area and I am sure they don’t need another one right now.

The local authority should get out of the way and let the people of the valley get on with their lives without the uncertainty of what some committee is likely to come up with.

What is it about elective positions that give people delusions of relevance?

Nearly 30 years ago my father told me Labor couldn't run a chook raffle in a pub.
True to form Anna Bligh is continuing to throw money at water and other huge projects without the most basic master plan, or community cooperation.
She can afford to be generous, it's our money she's spending.