Fight to stop 50m Optus tower

Tony Brown and Craignish and Dundowran residents gathered last night to fight the proposed Optus Mobile tower.

Karleila Thomsen

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• Residents resist mobile tower

DUNDOWRAN and Craignish residents are shaping up for round two of a fight to stop Optus Mobile building a 50-metre telecommunications tower near their homes.

Last month the Fraser Coast Regional Council rejected the telecommunication giant's application but Optus is appealing the decision in Brisbane's Planning and Environment Court.

The council said the appeal was in the early stages and it had engaged a solicitor to act on its behalf.

About 40 concerned residents met late yesterday to plan the next phase of action against the proposed tower on Karraschs Road in Craignish.

Dundowran's Tony Brown said the tower would stand about 80m in the air because it was being built on a 30m high hill.

He said Grand View Estate would no longer live up to its name and property values would suffer.

"Everyone's furious," Mr Brown said. "We thought it was over - dead and buried."

He said they had approached politicians about the situation, were checking whether they needed a lawyer and were investigating whether the court could come to the Fraser Coast instead of the residents having to travel to Brisbane.

An Optus spokesperson said the site would improve mobile coverage and a rigorous assessment process was followed when trying to find the right location for a mobile facility.

He said they aimed to strike a balance between feedback from the community and customer demand for increased mobile and broadband coverage.

"Our preference, as stated previously on a number of occasions, is to build a low-impact facility ... on Straits Outlook however we have been unable to further discussions," he said.

Another Dundowran resident, Audrey McInnes, said if the tower was built it would be visible from her front windows.

She was not only concerned about the size of the tower but also possible health risks.