BOYNE River irrigators and producers are facing a nervous wait for rain with the water supply from Boondooma Dam set to be cut off in March if levels continue to drop.
Under the river’s Resource Operations Plan governed by the Queensland Department of Natural Resource and Mines when the river reaches 70,000 megalitres water supply is turned off.
When members Boyne River irrigators met with Sunwater advisors last Wednesday the river was at 77,000 megalitres.
At the current rate it is expected the water supply will be turned off by early March.
A similar situation occurred in 2005 when water was cut off and irrigators spent two and a half years without water.
Boyne River Irrigator Advisory Committee Chairman and Mundubbera farmer Ken Darrow said it had detrimental effects on the region which was heavily reliant on irrigation for crops.
“A lot of farms went bust, we only just survived by the skin of our teeth,” he said.
“The Boyne River produces citrus, pecans, blueberries, small crops and cattle, most of these businesses rely on irrigation so when we get cut off we have to find alternative sources.
“There are some of us that have got storage dams that we have put in. Other than that I think a lot of them (irrigators) will just turn their businesses off until water flows again.”
“Someone gave rough estimates that with all the economy of what the river produces it is about $90 million a year. That’s a huge boost to the local economy.”
Among the producers who will be affected is manager of Smart Berries blueberry farm at Mundubbera, Stewart ‘Blade’ McKenzie.
While the property does get some of its irrigation supply from the Burnett River, Mr McKenzie said most of it came from the Boyne River.
“90 per cent comes from the Boyne,” he said.
“Blueberries need to be watered every day, it’s a big extra cost trying to source water from somewhere else.”
The Boyne River Irrigator Advisory Committee have written to Minister for Energy, Biofuels and Water Supply Mark Bailey to discuss the issue.
He responded by saying he could not confirm a time to meet.
Mr Darrow said one of the problems stemmed from the Boyne River’s reliability.
“The Boyne River irrigation scheme has a 73 per cent reliability and most other schemes have got reliabilities of 90 per cent,” he said.
“It’s all because of the Resource Operations Plan that's been enforced by the government.
“You can say that nature has caused this drought. Another way of saying it is that it’s been caused by the ROP’s (Resource Operations Plan) that is enforced by the Queensland Government.
“In this day and age I find it hard to believe that a government would willingly put a farming community through so much pain and suffering when it gives so much to the prosperity of Queenslanders themselves.”