General News
3 November, 2026
Probe into council’s use of waterhole
TABLELANDS Regional Council is investigating claims that it has been illegally draining water from a well-known waterhole on Silver Valley Road to use on its roadworks.
Glenn Hall, who owns a vacant property that adjoins Sheppard’s Waterhole, said that despite making complaints annually about the practice, TRC and its contractors continued to take water from the resource.
Mr Hall said the historically permanent waterhole held a large amount of groundwater during the dry season “as it sits on solid rock and is classified as protected wetland”.
“It is not that deep but is usually about half of a kilometre long unless illegally being pumped out,” he said.
“Over recent years, TRC has decided to repeatedly illegally drain this waterhole to use on their annual roadworks in the area to save money on carting in water.
“Despite annual complaints reporting these highly illegal activities, they continue to come back each year to take out the water.
“As this waterhole is the only public permanent water for kilometres in that extremely dry area, a lot of wildlife, such as Spotted Quolls, depend on the water through the dry season.
“Once again, they have just about pumped this wetland area dry with water trucks just to put on roadworks.
“As they have been repeatedly doing this every year, it has caused all the wetland vegetation and reeds that animals like frogs depend on along the banks to die off.
“I spoke to one of the water truck drivers removing the water on 6 October and he said he had taken out 350,000 litres in the previous week alone.”
Mr Hall claims thousands of fish and other aquatic life that normally survived through the dry season had perished.
“The TRC has systematically destroyed this historic waterhole and all the turtles, fish and everything else that depends on it,” he said.
“Ponded or ground water is protected by State law for obvious reasons especially in a dry environmentally sensitive area like this that has been identified as being inhabited by various wildlife.
“It is highly illegal to remove, even by the council, and it would be impossible for TRC to obtain a permit to do this and they have been well aware of this fact.”
A council spokesperson told The Express the matter was being investigated thoroughly but it was “not in a position to respond quickly to such serious allegations at this time”, even though The Express sent the council questions on 12 October.
“TRC has noted the matters set out in your email, is treating them seriously, and will continue to investigate them,” the spokesperson said.
“TRC can indicate that a contractor of TRC has used volumes of water in the area in order to carry out work on TRC’s roads, under the terms of a contract with TRC.
“TRC (including through its contractors) is legally able to use water to construct or maintain infrastructure in accordance with Section 99 of the Water Act 2000.”
Section 99 states that a constructing authority may take water to construct or maintain infrastructure if the construction or maintenance is lawful; if taking water for that purpose is prescribed by regulation; and the constructing authority complies with a number of conditions.
“TRC will investigate the circumstances behind any removal and use of water in this area to confirm compliance with the relevant statutory provisions,” the spokesperson said.
