Leading economist Ross Garnaut has confirmed that a tender for the former Longreach Pastoral College that involved every university in Queensland and all of Australia's major research institutes has been unsuccessful.
Professor Garnaut AO, who chairs Sunshot Industries, which is in a partnership with the Remote Area Planning and Development Board to create the Barcaldine Renewable Energy Zone and produce zero-emissions energy-intensive industrial materials and fresh produce from the region's renewable resources, said the proponents of the bid hadn't been told why they were unsuccessful.
"We were focused on demonstrating that Queensland's rangelands can be developed profitably in a zero carbon world economy," he said.
"Our bid would have been very good for Queensland and Australia, so I'm delighted that there's been an even better bid than ours."
The state government received 17 tenders when they closed in February.
The AAM Investment Group, headed up by Garry Edwards, revealed last Friday that its consortium of nine of Australia's prominent pastoral holdings had not been successful in its bid to repurpose the college assets for targeted learning.
Mr Edwards said at the time that it had been an opportunity lost, a sentiment echoed by many following the news.
The state government said that three tender applicants had been successful, but due to commercial-in-confidence reasons, it will not announce the names or individual prices paid by the successful tender applicants until it is settled by early June.
The sale price is $12.4 million and the three configurations were for all land south of the Landsborough Highway (campus and grazing land), grazing land north of the Landsborough Highway and improved farming land adjacent to the Thomson River.
"All three sale prices exceeding the independent market valuation for the property configurations," a government spokesperson said. "Seventeen tenders were received, however a number did not conform with the requirements of the tender process."
Noting that the government had made a commitment that the tender process would consider both the price offered and the proposed community benefit for Longreach and the wider region, the spokesperson added that the government expected the successful bidders would deliver on the commitments to the community that they had made through the tender process, including increased jobs and economic activity through tourism, horticulture, education and training, and livestock production activities.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
