CENTRAL Queensland’s luck finally appears to be changing with the release of the agricultural white paper, which highlights two dam projects.
The region had been largely ignored in the Northern Australia White Paper, despite more than half of it sitting within the north.
The paper has identified both the Fitzroy Agricultural Corridor, involving the upgrade of Eden Bann weir and the construction of the Rookwood weir, and the construction of the Nathan Dam, as projects with great opportunities.
“What it means is that we have been noticed, we haven’t been overlooked and the cost-benefit analysis of Rookwood and Eden Bann has stacked up,” said Growing Central Queensland project manager Anne Stünzner.
These two projects were the only pieces of water infrastructure in the state with a nearly completed environmental impact statement that allowed agricultural use, she pointed out.
“The other dams are only for industrial or urban use.”
The beauty of Rookwood and Eden Bann was that they would not inundate any extra land, they gave access to further land area suitable for intensification, and more farmers could benefit than from one big dam.
Asked why the push for dams in central Queensland rather than in other parts of the state, Ms Stünzner said the region already had the road, rail, port and air infrastructure.
“We are experienced with using water infrastructure to grow agriculture, we have the infrastructure in place to take a product from paddock to plate and we have the University of Central Queensland to train us to be smarter in agriculture," she said.
“We have an agricultural base that is stable in the longer term rather than mining.”
The investment - $434 million for both projects – would see $750 million per annum in high-value crops and the creation of 2100 direct, long-term jobs from farming.
“That does not include jobs created by construction,” Ms Stünzner said.
“The federal funds put towards water infrastructure would go along way to covering the cost for building that.”
The government’s backing to the projects follows a regional tour by Mr O’Dowd, Senator Canavan, and Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry last October to visit all of the identified projects.
Central Queensland is already an agriculture powerhouse, with $2 billion of agricultural output per year, and over 16 per cent of the region’s workforce was employed in agriculture.
“Central Queensland can become our nation’s second food bowl after the Murray-Darling Basin with this plan,” Senator Canavan said.
“Six million megalitres of water flow to sea out of the Fitzroy every year. That’s equivalent to about one fifth of the water in the entire Murray-Darling Basin. The Murray-Darling basin has enough dams to store 78 per cent of its water.
“By contrast, the Fitzroy system has only one really big dam – Fairbairn Dam on the Nogoa River near Emerald – and it stores just 18 pc of the average annual flow down the Nogoa. We could be storing far more water here to create more.”
Mr O’Dowd said these projects would bring multi-million-dollar construction projects to the region and create hundreds of jobs.
“These projects would deliver $1.5 billion in investment to our region, something Gladstone and central Queensland desperately needs.”
Meanwhile, Ms Landry said there needed to be joint co-operation between state, federal and private enterprise in moving this project forward.
“That includes putting money on the table for water projects, just as other state governments have done," she said.
“That’s why Tasmania has got so many water projects ahead of Queensland.”
Meanwhile, Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt told Queensland Country Life the government supported the development of Eden Bann and Rookwood.
“There are a significant number of opportunities right now in this region of Queensland where the federal government needs to play a more active role by contributing real infrastructure funding," he said.
“Eden Bann and Rookwood, which form the Lower Fitzroy Infrastructure Project, and Nathan Dam and pipelines are commercial projects managed by SunWater and their development will be a commercial decision for SunWater if they get the appropriate approvals.
“We encourage industry and the potential customers to work with government and Sunwater to deliver these projects.”
