Two years ago, 39 families had their “piece of heaven” taken from them and their “beautiful little community” destroyed. 

To this day, they say resentment simmers, marriages have broken down and people pushed to the brink of suicide. 

They owned waterfront cabins on Moogerah Dam. Some had been in the hands of the same family for decades. Some spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and many the happiest days of their lives there. 

Then, on 7 March 2018, the cabin owners received a letter from Scenic Rim Regional Council telling them to remove their cabins by the end of that June. 

Because, while they might have owned the structures, the families did not own the land. 

Seqwater does, and it deemed the waterfront as flood margin land unsuitable for permanent structures. 

Though they say they had paid council rental fees for years and had council approved building plans, the cabin owners were not compensated for their loss. 

Rubbing salt into the wound, they say others profited from their misfortune. 

At the time, Scenic Rim Mayor Greg Christensen said that the changes would allow for more camping sites to be created.

“The termination of site occupation licences in the flood zone will enable council and Seqwater to redevelop the area so that it can be enjoyed by many and not just a select few,” he said in a Council issued press release. 

He also claimed that council and Seqwater “have endeavoured to provide as much notice as possible”.

It was a characterisation and a claim that riled those described as “a select few”. 

“We’re farmers and blue collar workers,” Grant Kirkwood said. 

“I’ve no idea why the mayor would demonise our families.”

Mr Kirkwood is a truck mechanic who runs a farm at Lowood. He said Moogerah allowed his family to have a holiday but still shoot back to check on the crops and animals every few days. 

About seven years ago he spent $70,000 to buy the cabin next to that belonging to his aunt, Judy Cox.

Ms Cox and her husband bought their cabin for a similar price in 2010. 

When she received the eviction letter, Ms Cox said she looked into moving their holiday home. She would have had to have it cut in half and transported with a police escort. 

“We just had to walk away, we got no compensation, nobody would help,” she said. 

Ms Cox lives nearby in Ebenezer, and said the cabin represented both their “way of life and retirement”. 

She said it was taken away on the back of a truck and sold by contractors. Others were simply demolished. 

“Whether it was legally right or not, it was just morally so wrong,” she said. 

Which is why Ms Cox is struggling to understand recent reports that Lake Moogerah’s AG Muller Park campsite numbers were slashed from potentially 400 (mainly unpowered) to just over 50 on June 30, this year.

There are also rumours that remaining permanent cabin and caravan sites at the park are set to be removed – rumours which council says has no merit “at this time”.

“None of it makes sense,” Ms Cox said. 

Seqwater responded to a request for an interview to clarify the situation with a written statement attributable to a spokesperson. 

“Camping is not permitted in Seqwater’s flood margin without lawful authority, which includes local government approval,” the statement read. 

“There is no lawful authority to conduct camping in the Licensed Area and Seqwater is not in a position to authorise activities that do not comply with statutory planning laws and requirements.

“In addition, in line with its current approach to Flood Margin Land management and regardless of the local government approval position, Seqwater considers camping on Seqwater FML - including the Licensed Area - to be an unacceptable risk to catchment water quality and should not be permitted by Seqwater under its FML Licence Arrangements moving forward.”

The statement also spoke to the challenges regulators faced on maintaining water quality at a site which provides drinking water to Boonah and Ipswich but also sees cattle grazing around it and boats running on it. 

“Seqwater catchments are mostly open catchments and there are many and varied challenges associated with managing that,” the statement read.

“A safe and reliable drinking water source is our focus and finding a balance that allows people to enjoy some of these areas while also provide safe and reliable drinking water is one of those challenges.”

For families like the Kirkwoods, authorities' efforts to find that balance has left permanent scars. 

Mr Kirkwood recalls sharing Christmases and Easters with cabin owners and campers as among his fondest memories.   

“It was absolutely magnificent, we loved it and we loved Boonah,” he said. 

“It was a beautiful little community and it was our little piece of heaven.

“Now nobody wants to go anywhere near the place.”

He said he had struggled to move on, and some former cabin owners have not given up hope of one day receiving compensation.

Ipswich man Brian Hart became a spokesperson for the group in 2018 and has led legal efforts. 

He had owned two cabins on the waterfront since the late 1980s and said he lost about $250,000 when they were taken away and sold. 

“So many people were affected mentally from the way we were treated,” he said. 

“Because I had been around for a long time and knew everyone, one of my roles has been trying to stop suicides and marriage bust ups.

“There were a lot of very sad cases.”

Mr Hart said authorities “got away with blue murder,” but although legal action has stalled for now, he hasn’t given up hope on holding them to account. 

For Judy Cox, however whatever happens next is too late. In a cruel twist, she has since been advised her Ebenezer home is to be compulsorily acquired for the Inland Rail project. 

In this case, at least, she will receive market value. 

“We’re getting out, we’re moving to the coast to retire,” Ms Cox said.

“We’ve had enough of the Scenic Rim.”