Former Bandido bikie associate left to contain massive alleged illegal toxic waste dump (2024)

With his drug-trafficker past, gold front teeth and a facial tattoo of a sword and shield, Jason Sinclair makes for an unusual environmental defender.

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The former Bandidos bikie associate was last in the news in 2021, when Queensland police raided his business — smashing an SUV through the doors and allegedly seizing a pistol, cash, and methamphetamines, before arresting him.

Now, after a brief spell in jail, he says he has reformed and has been helping to contain a toxic dump threatening to pollute one of the state's most environmentally significant waterways.

The ex-con's career change is one of many contradictory scenarios unfolding at a Queensland Environment Department-approved resource transfer facility at Owanyilla, about 240 kilometres north of Brisbane.

Tyres, fridges and asbestos allegedly dumped on property

An ABC investigation found the 180-hectare property on the Fraser Coast, marketed as part of an "eco-development" "like no other", is now an alleged pollution time bomb, after being used to illegally dump more than 35,000 tonnes of waste.

The case has raised concerns about what checks were done by the environment department before approving the facility, and how dumping allegedly continued despite the operators being ordered to shut down and remove the waste at a cost of nearly $17 million.

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Now chemicals in run-off and leaching from the waste allegedly threaten to pollute ecologically sensitive habitat, including the nearby Mary River, that is home to three endangered species and flows into the Ramsar-listed Great Sandy Strait between K'gari and the mainland.

Plastics, building waste, tyres, fridges and machinery are just a sample of the material that has been dumped across the property, and former staff have alleged they saw everything from a pig carcass and needles to asbestos and household waste turning up at the site.

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The garbage has been left virtually untouched, open to the elements to break down over a 21-month time frame, posing a major environmental threat.

"Who knows what is leaching into the surface water and ground water," says Professor Mark Kennard, the deputy director of the Australian Rivers Institute at Griffith University.

"It's a massive volume, a mix of materials, who knows what's in it. These things you can't just leave alone and hope that it doesn't happen.

"It could impact nationally listed threatened species and high conservation waterways."

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'One of the biggest sustainability hubs in Queensland'

The bush property, which was a former timber mill site, was promoted as a "Sustainability Hub" with a solar farm, recycling operation and a 400-person accommodation zone just off the Bruce Highway.

In 2020, local state MP Bruce Saunders told state parliament that it would "be one of the biggest sustainability hubs in Queensland powered fully by renewable energy".

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In July 2021, the environment department authorised a resource recovery and transfer facility for the block, that was to receive and temporarily store waste to be dismantled, sorted, bailed and removed.

The authority was issued to a small Gold Coast headquartered company, Fraser Coast Sustainability Pty Ltd, which featured local resort operator Jody Marie Pascall as the sole director and major shareholder.

But within a few months, locals contacted the government with concerns about waste mishandling.

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"We could hear the trucks and we thought one or two is ok, but then they were dumping night and day,'' says neighbour, farmer Noel Geritz.

"We started picking up plastic blowing onto our road and the smell and the flies and dust.

"We get run-off onto a creek on our property from the dump that feeds into the Mary River."

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Official protection order issued

Despite the complaints, and waste piling up metres high above the perimeter fence, it was not until December 2022, that the department issued an official environmental protection order requesting the rubbish — allegedly illegally dumped on wrong parts of the site — be removed.

The order noted that the rubbish on the site posed a run-off risk to "high value waters downstream".

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But three months later, Fraser Coast Sustainability Pty Ltd was put into liquidation owing creditors more than $5 million, allegedly without any clean-up occurring, according to the environment department.

In December 2023, the department issued a "chain of responsibility" environmental protection order, alleging the company's former director and major shareholder, Ms Pascal had benefited financially from the business and was considered responsible for the company's conduct.

The order required the waste removed at a cost of nearly $17 million.

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It alleged Ms Pascall had failed to ensure the business complied with its environmental obligations.

It alleged the waste was handled, processed and stored in the wrong areas, and the storage taking place was in an uncontrolled manner.

The business allegedly continued to accept waste into the wrong areas despite being ordered to stop in December 2021, while a stormwater retention dam had limited capacity to contain run-off.

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Contacted by the ABC on September 19, Ms Pascall said she "was not in a position to comment and was in hospital".

Order appealed in court

Ms Pascall and her de facto partner Anthony "Tony" Davies, who was the chief executive of the business, have appealed the enforcement actions in Queensland's Planning and Environment Court.

Efforts to contact Mr Davies have been unsuccessful.

Court documents show Ms Pascall alleged she did not have the financial capacity to cover the order's clean-up cost.

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She also alleged she did not accept the department's assessment of the clean-up costs as Mr Davies had told her of a more practical and economically viable method.

In the application, Mr Davies stated he was the business's CEO and ran day-to-day operations, including sorting and coordinating the waste.

He said the waste received was "free from contaminates" including asbestos, paints, oils, glues, batteries and animal carcasses.

Mr Davies denied claims he had failed to respond to the department's directions to fix issues on the site, and questioned the department's method of calculating the volumes of waste.

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He stated he had been reducing the amount of waste on the property, but that in February 2023, he was denied access to the site.

Mr Davies said the locks were changed and the site was "forcibly taken over" by Kevin Carey, who was a shareholder in the company.

Mr Carey and the former bikie associate

Mr Carey, is a Gold Coast businessman, who has run a law firm and night spots in the south-east Queensland city.

In a statement, he said: "We are aware of the issue at the Owanyilla site and sincerely regret any impact this may have on neighbouring properties and the local community."

Mr Carey said he and the other shareholder were advised the environment department had taken steps "to hold to account those responsible for the condition of the Owanyilla site".

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"We have assisted the DES (Department of Environment and Science) with their inquiries where necessary."

Mr Carey said they were not involved in any way in the illegal dumping.

When the ABC visited the block earlier this month, no work was being done to contain the waste and a resident referred all inquiries to Mr Sinclair, who later met the ABC at a nearby park.

He said he had been involved in caretaking the block for Mr Carey but had no role in any alleged illegal dumping or handling of the waste, or preventing people from accessing the property.

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Mr Sinclair said he had also been involved in trying to set up a business that involved repairing skip bins on the site, in association with Mr Carey.

"I had big plans. I wanted to help people I met in jail, I wanted to help them and get them working up here,'' said Mr Sinclair, who was convicted of drug trafficking in 2016.

"That was my dream."

'I'm no angel'

Mr Sinclair said he no longer had any connection to bikie gangs, claiming to be one of the first to take up a government program to leave.

"I'm no angel but I was trying to get a start here,'' he said.

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Mr Sinclair said he had been trying to ensure the waste did not become more of an environmental threat.

"I did hours and hours of work here. I left my machines here,'' he said pointing out to where he had tried to block run-off.

He confirmed police had raided the site recently where they allegedly found firearms, and that he was facing charges in connection with their seizure, and other items.

But he denied they were his and said he had taken a step away from associating with the property, so there could be no claims he was intimidating anyone from visiting.

He would not comment further on the matter because it was before the courts.

Police have declined to comment on Mr Sinclair's statement about being one of the first to take up the state's Organised Motorcycle Group exit program.

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When the ABC asked the environment department about what action it was taking in relation to the dump, a spokesperson said they had taken enforcement action against the company, the director and the CEO to "clean up their mess".

A spokesperson said "disappointingly" the company had not complied with the notices.

"We operate under a polluter pays principal and will take all appropriate actions available to ensure the polluter is responsible for the full costs of clean-up and any required remediation," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said before issuing an authority to operate, the department undertook rigorous assessments for all proposed environmentally relevant activities to ensure they met strict legislative requirements and standards.

She said this was to ensure any risks to the environment and community were managed appropriately.

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The spokesperson said the testing had not identified any immediate health risks.

But the department did not provide a response to an ABC question about exactly what testing was done, the location of the tests sites and why testing was not being done on surrounding properties that have watercourses flowing directly into the Mary River.

'Big risk' to the river

MP Bruce Saunders this week said the allegations against the company "were very concerning".

"As the matter is before the court, I cannot comment further,'' Mr Saunders said.

"I have always been a champion of local jobs and upskilling our communities."

The status of the dump, where waste has been left virtually untouched and degrading in the open air for more than a year, has environmentalists and locals on edge.

Professor Mark Kennard said there were "really important natural values" that were being put at risk by the waste.

He said not only was the leaching a worry but there was major concern associated with fire.

"If that caught fire all sorts of toxic chemicals are released by burning and plastics and Styrofoam as well as the impacts of the fire-retardant chemicals that they use to try and put out the fire,'' he said.

"If any of those toxicants got into the waterways again that would be a big risk to the conservation values of that part of the river."

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Professor Kennard said there were multiple threatened species of turtles and fish living in that part of the Mary River.

He also said toxic waste could be transported down the river channel into the estuary in the coastal zone.

"That is a nationally-listed Ramsar site, a nationally-listed important wetland adjacent to the world heritage area of K'gari Fraser Island," he said.

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The situation has left locals angry.

"We just want it cleaned up," Mr Geritz said, as he stood on the banks of the Mary River, with the waterway's famous endangered lungfish splashing below.

"We don't want toxic waste running through our property. Numerous people have seen the lungfish and the platypus in our creek and I'm worried about how much damage it's doing,'' he said.

"It's terrible nobody seems to have any control over that."

Former Bandido bikie associate left to contain massive alleged illegal toxic waste dump (2024)

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