Catalano v Council of the Shire of Johnstone [1992] QPEC 83

IN THE PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT COURT HELD AT CAIRNS QUEENSLAND P. & E. Appeal No. 36 of 1992 BETWEEN: SALVATORE CATALANO Appellant AND COUNCIL OF THE SHIRE OF JOHNSTONE Respondent REASONS FOR JUDGMENT - QUIRK O.C.J. Delivered the q...,;t:I... day of December 1992 In this matter I have to decide, as a preliminary point, whether the use proposed to be made of the subject land by the appellant (who made application for town planning consent in September of 1992) is a prohibited use under the respondent's Town Planning Scheme. The point is a short one and involves an examination of the Table of Zones and the definition "Light Industry" which is one of the purposes found as a prohibited purpose in Column V of the Table when it refers to the Rural "B" Zone in which the subject land is included. Light industry is defined as: "Any industry included in Appendix VII hereto and provided that the gross floor area does not exceed 1,500 square metres". The floor area here does not exceed the prescribed limit. -- 1 of 3 -- 2 Appendix VII includes a list of industries one of which is "Grinding Mill". A very broad description of the proposal is that it involves the processing of a soft rock material which evidently contains substances which make it beneficial as a soil additive. The material is brought from elsewhere and, on arrival, has a particle size of less than 7mm. The appellant, in an affidavit, describes the proposed procedure in these words: "At the plant, the material is transferred by a conveyor to a hopper. It is then released through a syntron feeder to a ball bell which is a rotating cylindrical drum containing steel balls. By rotating the drum, these steel balls transform the rock particles into a powder which has a consistency similar to that of powdered cement". After this the material is stored and marketed. Is, then, what is proposed a "Grinding Mill"? These words must be given their ordinarily understood meaning. A number of dictionary references were discussed in the course of argument but, in the context with which we are dealing, it is difficult to go past the proposition that grinding means the reduction of a material to finer particles by a process involving crushing between hard surfaces and that a grinding mill is a machine designed to carry out grinding. on any view of the matter one could not sensibly say that this proposal does not involve, as its major component, a grinding mill. -- 2 of 3 -- 3 Counsel for the appellant pointed to the definition "Rural Service Industry" which is: "Any premises used or intended for use for handling, !reating, processing or _packing primary products and inc~udes the serv:icing in a workshop of plant and 7quipment us~d or intended to be used for rural purposes in t!1e loca_lity. T!te term does not include those types of industries associated with primary products listed elsewhere in this part." It is difficult to know what to make of the last sentence of this definition. It would seem to me that sensibly construed it should be understood to exclude any "light industry" even though it might be associated with primary products. In any event the argument that this proposal is a discretionary use because it comes within the definition "Rural Service Industry" is difficult to accept. Column IV contains the "catch all" category of purposes and was pointed out by the Full court in Logan v. Woonqarra Shire council (1983) 2 Qd.R. 689 at 693, a Column V prohibition would ineffectively only where the use in question was expressly permitted as an adjunct to some use within Column IV. It could not be said that such is the case in this matter. I have concluded that the proposal here as described in the l.• s wi· thin the definition "Light material put before me Industry" and is therefore a prohibited use in the Rural B Zone. I rule accordingly. -- 3 of 3 --