Billionaire waste magnate Balfour Irvine has been charged with criminal offences over allegations of unlawful use of Brisbane land following a long-running feud between businesses in a riverside industrial area.
Irvine, the chief executive of resource company BMI Group, is facing 11 charges of unlawful use of premises relating to his company, Dunhill Properties.
Details of the criminal allegations, which were revealed in a separate but related proceeding in the Planning and Environment Court, are limited but come after Irvine’s publicised stoush with fellow rich lister Trevor Lee, whose Australian Country Choice runs an abattoir on a neighbouring site in Morningside.
Irvine, whose wealth recently swelled to $1.3 billion according to The Australian’s rich list, has long battled to run hospitality and retail businesses in the industrial zoned area.
The dispute between Irvine and Lee came to a head in 2024 after a farmer’s market, Rivermakers Markets, was established without a necessary permit on land owned by the waste magnate, according to the Brisbane City Council at the time.
The market was halted months after it began by the council following complaints from Australian Country Choice.
But the spat has continued due to Irvine’s attempts to run hospitality and retail businesses in the area.
Irvine is the sole director of Dunhill Properties, and involved in the management and control of Rivermakers through the BMI Group.
Eight of the charges relate to the Heritage Quarter precinct, situated on Colmslie Road at Morningside in Brisbane’s east. The property contains a state-listed heritage place.
Three of the charges relate to the facility named Depot, which is a larger precinct at the corner of Lytton Road and Colmslie Road. The two properties are separated by a developing industrial park.
The offences are alleged to have occurred between April 11 and September 19 last year. Charges were brought against Irvine in September after the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning commenced criminal proceedings in the Magistrates Court.
In the separate case before the planning court, Rivermakers had appealed against the Brisbane City Council’s decision to refuse a development application and variation request to the Morningside land.
Australian Country Choice has joined the Planning and Environment Court proceedings contending that a development application by Irvine should be refused.
The proposed development seeks preliminary approval for a material change of use for a bar, education establishment, food and drink outlet, function facility, and a large retail precinct.
The council has maintained that the development should be refused.
In a decision handed down on Wednesday, Judge Nicole Kefford declined to stay the planning dispute for one year over the Rivermakers site.
She said it was appropriate to explore other case management measures, including hearing of the progress of Irvine’s criminal proceedings, before continuing.
“The complaint alleges that Dunhill Properties Pty Ltd is criminally liable as a principal offender because it ‘permitted’ businesses to use the subject land for the purposes particularised in the complaints,” according to the decision in the planning court published this week.
“The complaint against Mr Irvine alleges that he is criminally liable … as a principal offender.
“The criminal liability of Mr Irvine is founded on proof of the offences in the complaint against Dunhill Properties Pty Ltd.”
Kefford said care needed to be taken in the planning appeal to ensure there was not a risk to the public’s expectation that the pursuance of private rights in the planning proceedings do not compromise the prosecution of the alleged offences in the Magistrates Court, and Irvine and Dunhill Properties right to silence.
James Hall is the News Director at the Brisbane Times. He is the former Queensland correspondent at The Australian Financial Review and has reported for a range of mastheads across the country, specialising on political and finance reporting.Connect via X or email.
