Regional North Queensland water forum discusses energy, drought and agriculture
The Far North could become a major force in the nation’s next generation of agriculture and population growth but standing in the way is a lack of planning of its most available resource.
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The Far North could become a powerhouse in the nation’s next generation of agriculture and population growth but standing in the way is a lack of collaborative planning on the use of its most available resource – water, stakeholders say.
Regional Development Australia Tropical North discussed how the region could better use its liquid commodity at a James Cook University forum on Tuesday.
The organisation has long reported the complexities in water policy creating difficulties for landholders and private businesses to harvest or access the liquid resource, as well as highlighted the lack of new infrastructure constructed to support development.
Before the federal election RDA Tropical North chief executive Sonja Johnson was calling for both parties to commit to a regional agricultural masterplan which would have identified water availability and allocations, stating: “The Gilbert River catchment at Etheridge has around 495GL which is unallocated.
“There’s so much water there no one is taking up so you have to ask why.”
While the request went unfunded — the forum attempted to brainstorm the challenges and opportunities for the region.
As it stands each of the north’s many water systems and catchments, and local government areas operate on different water plans, with different rules around their intended use and availability.
“We live in a very climatically variable position, we saw during Cyclone Jasper Douglas Shire was without drinking water, Wujal Wujal was without drinking water even though it was raining everywhere,” RDA Tropical North chairwoman Hurriyet Babacan said.
“So there’s a whole range of challenges around water security.
“Also, how do we use water effectively and efficiently for economic development?
“Part of it is infrastructure, part of it is about the market and the planning schemes. But also, how do the various water plans talk to each other?
“One water plan is for the Gulf, one water plan is for the Mitchell River, and so on.
How do we get a correlation across those water plans – I think that governance piece is a very important challenge.”
Cooperative Research Centre for Developing Northern Australia chief scientist Allan Dale said he was researching how North Queensland could become a leader in water development including energy production.
“Tropical North Queensland is one of the most secure and available water resources to actually deliver a national level of security in terms of drought,” he said.
“So a lot of opportunities to basically lift productivity in the water that we have, but to also think about integrated projects that can combine energy water thinking, deliver great improvements in agriculture, but also value add into processing, manufacturing and energy linkages.”
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Originally published as Regional North Queensland water forum discusses energy, drought and agriculture
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