Groundwork for a $825,000 feasibility study into expanding irrigated agriculture in Lakeland will start in April.
Allan Dale, chair of a community-driven steering committee overseeing the work, said Smec had been appointed as a consultant for the project.
Smec is a professional engineering and development consultancy firm
“This is the culmination of some fantastic work by Lakeland and Cape York Sustainable Futures to build a building block in the long term development of Cape York and provide economic opportunities for mainstream and indigenous communities,” said Mr Dale, who is chair of Regional Development Australia Far North Queensland.
“We believe Smec will be a very strong consultant for this project and will be bringing together strong engagement with the regional community around opportunities for the project.
“The $825,000 from the Federal Government’s Water Infrastructure Program will take us from an idea to a serious outcome.”
Mr Dale said there was great potential to expand irrigated agriculture in Lakeland.
“We see 5-6000 hectares already under irrigation,” Mr Dale said. “We need to shore up security for those growers and expand, perhaps up to 15,000 ha.
“It will deliver fantastic outcomes for the Lakeland community and Cape York.
“We expect work on the ground to start around April and a lot of the work commissioned and progressed before the end of year.
“We would like to see ourselves being very clear about moving forward by the middle of next year.”
Mr Dale said the water study was one of the building blocks to developing Cape York.
“Cape York is a special place,” Mr Dale said. “It’s a place for well targeted and focused development, and Lakeland is one of those places. But it depends on all the infrastructure standing behind it.
“Things don’t happen by themselves. We need a network of infrastructure and we need planning.
“This study will look at where the soils for development can be and where water options, ground and surface water, for development can support that.
“Those things have to come together to build the building blocks for agriculture.
“We do need to remember this is a development in a reef catchment. We have to get that fundamentally right and we don’t want to be contributing further to problems on the reef.”
Cook Shire Mayor Peter Scott said expanding irrigated agriculture in Lakeland would create employment and new opportunities.
“Here we have an opportunity to have a watershed project that demonstrates symbiotic opportunity between culturally sensitive, environmentally sensitive and economic need,” Cr Scott said.
“On Cape York you have the biggest bauxite mine in the world at Weipa and the biggest silica sand mine at Hopevale. Both employ hundreds of indigenous people in real jobs, really earning capacity and capacity building.
“We need to carry that forward in the agricultural sense at Lakeland.
“It’s only using 10 per cent of the available area there, let’s build it up.”
Lakeland banana grower Peter Inderbitzen said expanding irrigated agriculture in Lakeland was a “no brainer”.
“There is huge potential for irrigation and any expansion would create a terrific amount of jobs and be very good for Australia.”