Hail to the bale: growers cotton on to northern potential

After a five-decade hiatus, cotton growers are again attempting to tame the wild weather, soils and wildlife of northern Australia and forge a new industry in a region they see as full of untapped potential.

Ord River cotton grower Matt Stott with his crop near Kununurra in the far north of Western Australia. Picture: Nathan Dyer

As Matt Stott looks over the ­cotton bales building up in his paddock in Western Australia’s Kimberley region he begins to believe in the potential, measured in jobs and economic activity, of the bold venture he embarked on three years ago.

Harvesting of his 1000ha crop in the Ord River valley in the state’s northeast began last week, yielding 10 to 11 bales a hectare and coinciding with high cotton prices.

“It’s going well,” Mr Stott says. “Our yields are where we were hoping they’d be.”

After a five-decade hiatus, cotton growers are again attempting to tame the wild weather, soils and wildlife of northern Australia and forge a new industry in a region they see as being full of untapped potential.

Mr Stott’s crop is part of a cumulative 2400ha under production in the Ord River district and thousands of hectares are being grown in the Northern Territory and north Queensland.

Cotton gins, used to separate seed from lint, being developed in WA and the Northern Territory are set to revolutionise the industry, saving growers the margin-shredding cost of trucking cotton bales 3400km to Dalby on Queensland’s Darling Downs to be ginned.

Hopes of building a viable cotton industry in the north during the 1970s were dashed by weather and pests, but new plant varieties and economies of scale have made it possible.

Mr Stott planted his first Kimberley crop in 2020 and continues to run a property near Darlington Point on the Murrumbidgee River in the NSW Riverina.

He says the water supply from the massive Lake Argyle on the Ord River is a more consistent supply than the Murrumbidgee, but the tropical climate posed its own challenges.

“The fundamentals are the same in the way we fertilise and ­irrigate, but the climate is a lot warmer so things grow a lot ­faster,” Mr Stott says.

Cotton prices have skyrocketed due to a drought in the US that has destroyed 40 per cent of the country’s vast crop.

The more than $800 a bale on offer has increased the viability of the operation and cut down on the massive freight costs of trucking the cotton to Queensland.

“The price being up obviously offsets that,” Mr Stott says. “If it was $400 a bale we wouldn’t be growing it because there wouldn’t be any money in it.”

Growers from across the three northern states spoke of the challenges and opportunities at the ­biennial Australian Cotton Conference on the Gold Coast last week. Fellow Ord cotton grower Fritz Bolton said the increasing scale of crops growing in the district had increased the viability of the local industry.

There are plans to have a $55m gin in Kununurra operational by 2025 and the lint and cotton seed, which is fed to livestock, has the potential to boost the economy by $250m and support 1100 jobs.

A gin at Katherine, 500km east in the NT, is expected to be operational next year.

The development of the industry, and plans for expansion, have concerned some conservationists, who say the region doesn’t have adequate water to sustain the irrigated crops. But NT cotton grower Bruce Connolly, whose crops on Tipperary Station are rain-fed, said farmers wanted to manage the land sustainably.

Another NT grower, Brett Corish, said mixed soil types, extremes in weather and the occasional crocodile posed constant challenges to the northern pioneers.

“Conditions are hard but each year it seems to be getting better,” Mr Corish said.