Longreach shire considering $18m fence debt

This comes in the wake of receiving 63 expressions of interest when the council wrote to gauge interest in a plan to borrow money, loan it to the landholder and recover the money through a special rate.

Mayor Ed Warren said he wasn’t surprised by the enthusiastic response, considering the outcome could put an extra 200,000 sheep in the district, and $2.4m in wages.

“Our application has to go through the Department of Local Government to Treasury and preliminary discussions have taken place,” he said.

“I’m not being over-confident at this stage, but council does have the capacity to borrow.

“We’ve done a lot of financial modelling to be sure we’d not be putting council in a position that will come back and bite us.”

Cr Warren said he suspected some EOIs would not progress to concrete projects once applicants went through due diligence processes with their bank managers, given the amount of debt some were carrying.

“But if it adds value to a property, it makes sense,” he said.

The new Member for Maranoa, David Littleproud, has taken up where his predecessor Bruce Scott left off and made wild dog check fence funding one of his first priorities.

He has called out One Nation senator Pauline Hanson’s focus on building a new motorsport precinct in Townsville ahead of key needs in western Queensland, particularly when a funding commitment of $100m has been made by the government for a multi-purpose stadium for the city.

“Senator Hanson has seen the drought firsthand this year after travelling through western Queensland with the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners. I hope she hasn't now forgotten the drought-affected farmers in this electorate after the election.”