Cattle grazing on Irwin reserve in Cape York

TERRI Irwin has been accused of planning to extend cattle grazing - including the construction of 31 dams - on the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve on Cape York despite vowing to do everything possible to protect the land from bauxite mining.

The revelation follows yesterday's defeat of Ms Irwin's company, Silverback Properties, in a Queensland Land Court case against bauxite miner Cape Alumina, which was seeking access to the property.

In a decision handed down by court member Paul Smith, Silverback was ordered to allow Cape Alumina access to the parts of the land over which

it holds mining exploration permits.

Following Steve Irwin's death in September 2006, the Howard government gave the Irwins $6.3 million in July last year under the National Reserve System Program to pay for the 135,000ha property.

The Irwins had already bought the property and the government grant covered the total cost. The Rudd Government has since changed the reserve system rules to ensure federal funding can make up only two-thirds of the purchase price of reserve properties.

Cape Alumina holds mining exploration leases over about 10per cent of Ms Irwin's land and plans to mine less than

2 per cent.

According to documents accessed under Freedom of Information laws by Cape Alumina, which were not tendered to the court, the Irwins planned to sub-let for 15 years 59,200ha of the property to the previous owners. The previous owners would then run cattle on 12,000ha of that land.

According to the Department of the Environment and Water Resources assessment of the Irwins' proposal in June last year, this would create "a significant private benefit from a public investment".

The documents reveal that the Irwins planned to use the rest of the 135,000ha as a conservation reserve, with the area given over to cattle reverting to a reserve at the end of the 15-year sub-lease. The department ultimately approved the proposal.

Cape Alumina chief executive Paul Messenger, who revealed the documents outside the Land Court, called for Ms Irwin to withdraw an Australia Zoo petition titled "Save Steve's Place", which was aimed at preventing the company's bauxite project.

Mr Messenger said the petition was a "misguided attempt to override due process and the interests of other stakeholders".

A spokeswoman for Ms Irwin said last night she was not available for comment on Cape Alumina's claims about her plans for using the reserve land.

But in a statement released late last night, she said yesterday's verdict was "not a right to mine", only to explore the land.

"There cannot be any compromise on this," she said. "Destroying an ecosystem that has yet to be described is simply wrong."

On the Save Steve's Place petition, Ms Irwin said it "gives the people of Australia a voice - and it is ringing loud and clear". The petition on the Australia Zoo website has more than 16,000 signatures.

The Land Court's Mr Smith also ordered that Silverback pay 75 per cent of Cape Alumina's legal costs, which Mr Messenger estimated would be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Cape Alumina plans to begin its mining operations in Cape York in 2011 and expects to export seven million tonnes of bauxite to China each year.