NORTH Stradbroke Island residents have objected to the $1.3 billion Toondah Harbour project, saying there has been a lack of consultation.
One Mile Residents Aboriginal Corporation chairman Dale Ruska said Aboriginal people had not been given a chance to say whether they supported the project.
Mr Ruska spoke to residents at talks organised by developer Walker Corporation at Dunwich on Saturday.
He said a group of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people had attended the session but Walker Corporation representatives said the meeting was for one-on-one talks, not a community discussion.
Mr Ruska said attendees including Aboriginal elders wanted to get chairs and sit down in the Dunwich hall but the organisers had refused.
He said the group had their own meeting in the hall, with some people sitting on the floor and had given a unanimous show of hands against the project.
"Aboriginal people attended the meeting because we have had no part in the discussions about the project to date," he said.
Toondah Harbour communications manager Dolan Hayes said the event was advertised as a three-hour drop-in session to talk to experts like the project's lead environmental manager on the environmental impact statement.
"It was not a open public debating session on the merits of the project," Mr Hayes said.
He said Walker did not provide chairs but there was adequate seating in the hall.
Mr Ruska said the Walker Corp representatives had said that the session was for people to look at displays and talk to consultants.
"They conveyed that but it was not what the people wanted," he said.
Mr Ruska said the group would start a petition to lobby the state and federal government as part of their objection to the development.
He said the project would have a devastating and irreversible impact on the environment.
Mr Hayes said this was the start of the EIS and there would be many opportunities for feedback.
"Walker is committed to ongoing consultation," he said. "March 6 is the final date for public comment on the EIS guidelines.
"The federal government will now determine the timeframe for the start of the EIS and there are many built-in, formal engagement processes that will be widely advertised."
Mr Ruska said there had also been a lack of consultation with the North Stradbroke Island economic transition strategy run by the state government.
Last year Mr Ruska called for the state government to pause the ETS and do more consultation because the process had been non-inclusive and non-transparent.
