Central Highlands council wants to buy part of Emerald Ag College

Councillors voted in October to formally advise the state Department of Agriculture of council's desire to purchase approximately 350 hectares of the site, located on the Capricorn Highway.

That would include campus facilities, playing fields, the go-kart facility, the Ag-grow field day site and surplus land, and council is hopeful of securing them in early 2022.

The college, along with the Longreach Pastoral College, closed at the end of 2019 following a review by Professor Peter Coaldrake, and the council signed a three-year lease just over a year ago for the main administration building on the site that it's using as its Local Disaster Coordination Centre.

In June this year, the state government announced that its research facility at the former college would be redeveloped into the Central Queensland Smart Cropping Centre.

"We have been part of a key stakeholder group involved in the transition process following the shutdown of the QATC and find ourselves in a position now to best realise the potential of the ag college site," CHRC mayor Kerry Hayes said.

"Together with the Central Highlands Development Corporation, council has exercised a due diligence process over the proposal to purchase part of the site.

"Once a valuation report and a preliminary survey plan are developed, council will finalise its deliberations."

Agriculture Minister Mark Furner said the government had actively engaged with the council and the CHDC regarding options for the future use of the campus and related areas.

"The economic opportunities that the council envisages, particularly for the campus area, align well with the Central Queensland Smart Cropping Centre development," he said.

"We are investing in infrastructure to enable the latest agricultural technologies and data systems to support RD&E work delivered from Emerald into the wider central Queensland region and across the state.

"This will complement the existing Emerald Research Facility that includes approximately 400 hectares of productive improved cropping cultivation."

Cr Hayes there were a number of important and critical opportunities for the Central Highlands and the broader region on this site that were already known to the council.

"We also have other interests that are heavily focused on technology and innovation related to our key industries," he said, adding that the council would be the enabler for these developments.

He said the size of the site would allow the council to achieve other important infrastructure in the future, as long as it could afford it.

"This is a major investment, and we will need partners and their funding to create the opportunities for current and future generations of Central Highlanders," he said.

"It's been a long process and our communities have progressed through their disappointment at closure and job losses to uncertainty over what's happening so, if everything goes to plan, this will be a great outcome for all of us."

The ball is now in the government's court but all that Mr Furner would say was that there had been strong interest from proponents in both the Longreach and Emerald campus properties, and it would continue constructive discussions with those proponents.

In May this year the government sold the McKenzie River cattle breeding and fattening property, Berrigurra, part of the former Emerald Agricultural College, for $32.5m, adding the profits to consolidated revenue.

Inventory such as livestock, machinery, vehicles and chattels have also been sold over the past 12 months.

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