Andrew Forrest plans for the sea beneath our feet

ANDREW Forrest has a vision for Australian agriculture where no farmer will ever have to watch his starving cattle die.

ANDREW Forrest has a vision for Australian agriculture where no farmer will ever have to watch his starving cattle die in the dust or be forced off the family farm by drought.

It is a passion close to his heart; it’s what he endured as the son of a pastoralist in 1998 when his father had to sell their vast Pilbara cattle station, Minderoo, because of drought and mounting debt.

Just over a decade later, by now the billionaire boss of his own Fortescue iron ore company, Forrest junior bought back Minderoo, which ironically is Aboriginal for “place of permanent water”.

He decided then that he would do everything possible to bring an end to the social and economic devastation, animal suffering and production losses caused by severe drought — a plan that has grown into his grand “drought-proofing Australia” scheme.

Yesterday, at the national agricultural Outlook conference in Canberra, he outlined his ambitious strategy to water-proof and drought-proof Australia using vast basins of underground water rather than new surface dams from rivers.

Mr Forrest, who is expanding his cattle and agricultural interests and last year bought Western Australia’s largest meat processor and exporter, Harvey Meats, is now turning his philanthropic and intellectual focus to water.

He is convinced 5000 giga­litres of water a year — equivalent to 10 Sydney Harbours of fresh water — could be taken from underground aquifers replenished each year by tropical rain, without any adverse environmental impact.

“Think underground water, not just dams; it will take serious investment but by harnessing the huge potential of northern Australia and its underground water on a major scale we could bring (irrigation) water to places like the massive, dry Canning Basin of WA, where there is now none,” Mr Forrest said. “This water gets topped up every year naturally (by rain); it’s like the inland sea our explorers searched for, but it was not in front of them, but beneath their feet.”

Mr Forrest’s Minderoo Group is putting together a team of scientists, researchers and agriculturalists and bringing in government and high-level business contacts in China, who might be potential investors, to get his national water scheme to the feasibility stage within a year.

He believes there is enormous wealth-creating potential in Australia’s agricultural sector — and for economic prosperity — as long as the nation thinks visionary and large-scale and protects itself from the vicious, devastating cycle of drought.

Mr Forrest’s water group is studying the location of underground water; how to trap, tap and store it; how to minimise the costs of constructing associated dams and pipelines; and considering the most suitable crops to grow.

He said the key to the project’s success was accessing strong, long-term passive investment capital from Chinese partners.

It would also need a contribution from the Australian government, and political leaders with the logic and vision to rise above “petty politics” to give the nation the leadership and stability its people deserve.

The head of the Northern Australian development office, Luke Bowen, said he believed Mr Forrest had yet to discuss his plans with the Northern Territory government. However, he said, using replenishable aquifers to open up new areas of dry pastoral cattle stations to irrigation and crops was feasible and environmentally sound, with much of the rich irrigation region between Darwin and Katherine watered by a small flow from the Orroroo aquifer.