Elation, relief, and hope for the community … these are the things Eungella locals expressed after a town hall with Queensland's new premier.

David Crisafulli visited the small town, west of Mackay, to confirm he has scrapped the former government's controversial Pioneer-Burdekin Pumped Hydro Project slated for the area.

It would have been the largest renewable energy project of its kind in the world, but the premier went to the October election promising it would no longer go ahead.

"It never stacked up financially, it never stacked up environmentally, it didn't have Traditional Owner consent," Mr Crisafulli said.

"More importantly, this community was never treated with the respect they deserved."

For Save Eungella campaigner Jonelle Neilsen, the visit symbolised the start of the healing process for the community.

"It's been a huge boost for morale to have it scrapped," she said.

"There's going to be a huge recovery period, a lot of families moved on, the stress just got way too much for them … others are still here and still fighting so we're hoping that we can support them, gain community members back, [and gain] some new ones as well."

She said the project would have been 'catastrophic' if it had gone ahead.

"Loss of agricultural land, loss of family homes, tourism, who wants to come up here and see a mud hole down the bottom of the range," she said.

"We also have … the well-known Eungella honeyeater but also 27 endemic species at least in this area and then the platypus, the greater gliders, so many migratory species rely so heavily on this space."

Local landowner John Sempf said he felt "vindicated" by the project's cancellation.

"Hydro wanted to railroad me out of my property … heaps of people around me have sold, but I didn't want to sell," he said.

In April, Queensland Hydro purchased land from 57 landowners in the area.

They will now be invited to buy their land back, Mr Crisafulli said.

"That process will be tailored to the individual, it can't be a blanket approach otherwise people will fall through the cracks," he said.

"It's important that they have every chance to get back into their home and that it's done at a fair rate, and if we do that we can restore the future of this beautiful part of the world."

Mr Crisafulli said his government has a "laser-like focus" on finding an affordable way to continue with the former government's other proposed pumped hydro project, at Borumba dam south of Gympie.

"We do believe it can be done in a respectful way to the environment and if we can make sure that it's affordable it can also be a project that Queenslanders can benefit [from]," he said.

"The department is also working on other plans for smaller more manageable hydro, and when that is concluded we'll be open and honest and transparent with Queenslanders and look to find ways that projects can occur without communities being treated like doormats."

The Queensland Conservation Council has voiced concern the LNP's proposed alternative sites could be just as harmful for the environment.

It has called on the government to name the prospective locations within 100 days.