Bush Summit: Renewables push the big new challenge for Qld farmers

Life can be tough for the man on the land, but a new challenge has emerged that can make it even tougher.

John Baker, 67, at his Booroondarra Station in Central Queensland. Picture: Adam Head

• Matt Canavan: Take nuclear option

The record run on cattle prices has stalled, the rains of recent years are about to dry up and the push for renewables is challenging graziers who are starting to question whether they get fair compensation for those wind turbines dotting the landscape.

Yet, at age 67, John Baker is still riding high in the saddle, facing down the challenges of life on the land just as his ancestors did out at Booroondarra Station in Central Queensland.

The successful grazier and AgForce Central Queensland regional director says primary industries always involve challenges, but one of the more pressing ones that has only arisen over the past decades is renewable energy projects.

Mr Baker said the issue was front and centre at a recent AgForce meeting he attended in Brisbane.

“It is not that we are against them, it’s just that we want to see some fair compensation coming our way when they come on to your property,’’ he said.

AgForce general president Georgie Somerset said in a recent newsletter the dilemma about what to do about renewable energy companies turning up at farmer’s front doors and “wanting to dig a dirty great hole in your back yard’’ was growing increasingly urgent.

“For city dwellers, a swift door slam is likely to be the best course of action,’’ she said.

“But if you’re a farmer it’s not that simple.

“When it comes to giving resources companies access to land, producers often feel powerless to negotiate a fair deal.’’

Australia’s transition to renewable energy means thousands of kilometres of new transmission lines will be built on farmland, and many farmers are still not sure how these roll outs will impact their operation.

Mrs Somerset said a Federal Government review into community engagement practices for renewable energy infrastructure was a step in the right direction, but more transparency was needed.

Cattle prices which have plunged more than 20 per cent this year are also a concern for beef producers as the Australian herd rebuilds rapidly, partly on the back of a run of good wet seasons across northern Australia.

The urgency to buy new stock which peaked last year is now falling off in many beef-producing centres, but Mr Baker says the prices are still around levels seen in around 2015, and are coming off a historic price spike,

More pressing for Queensland beef producers is the probability of the La Nina weather pattern which have brought record breaking rain to Australia’s east over the past few years transitioning into a drier El Nino pattern.

Booroondarra Station, which has been in Mr Baker’s family for almost 100 years, has rain records going back to the early part of the century which Mr Baker’s grandfather provided to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The driest year was 1948, but the property still got 240mm, while the wettest was 2010 with over 1200mm, and the station’s average was about 660mm a year.

Mr Baker said there was a widespread acceptance that drier weather was approaching, but all a grazier could do was prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

“We all know a drought is followed by a flood, and a flood is followed by a drought,’’ he said.

“That’s just the way it is.’’

Originally published as Bush Summit: Renewables push the big new challenge for Qld farmers