Growing with the grain

RICE might not be the first crop that springs to mind when you think of north Queensland but it's thriving at Home Hill, near Townsville.

RICE might not be the first crop that springs to mind when you think of north Queensland, but it is flourishing on a farm owned by Townsville couple Paul and Amanda Lowis.

The success of the crop could underpin greater northern participation in Australia’s Riverina-based $500 million rice industry.

It could also see the spotlight on Australian rice production swing north to the Burdekin and other parts of the coastal and near-coastal tropics.

Australian giant SunRice turns over more than $1 billion a year globally in rice product.

A company spokesman said yesterday it already had 700ha of commercial rice in production on farms between Cairns and Mackay.

Member for Dawson George Christensen saw the Lowis’s rice-growing venture for the first time last week and said he came away impressed with the undertaking and excited about the potential it offered the Burdekin and other parts of North Queensland.

“This is very exciting. What we are seeing is the transference of the Australian rice industry from the Riverina to the Burdekin,” he said.

“SunRice is envisaging sharp falls in rice production in the Riverina over the next five years and want to shore up supply by getting the industry up and running in the Burdekin and other parts of North Queensland.”

Mr and Mrs Lowis, who own Garage World Townsville, operate a cropping and cattle operation at Gumlu, south of Home Hill, and are happy to be overseeing their first crop of commercial rice.

Mr Lowis said he was surprised that rice would not only grow on the hot plains of Gumlu, but flourish.

“Its going really well. It hasn’t had a drop of rain on it until (yesterday). We planted in late August and watered from a farm dam and bores,” he said.

Burdekin SunRice manager Steve Rogers said one of the reasons why the company wanted to develop commercial rice farming in other locations was water. He said the Riverina had traditionally grown about one million tonnes of rice, but production levels had dropped to 800,000 tonnes due to dwindling water supplies in the Murray-Darling.

“We would like to see North Queensland reach far greater production levels by 2022. We are hoping the north will make up the shortfall in the Riverina,” he said.

Mr Rogers said the northern crop would be harvested next month, processed in Brandon and packed as SunRice North Queensland Rice.

“It should be on the supermarket shelves early in the New Year,” he said.

SunRice chairman Gerry Lawson said northern conditions suited growing speciality rice types such as fragrant and long-grain varieties.

Mr Lowis said he was interested in expanding production, but said it hinged on his ability to find and pay for more water.

“It is not paddy rice. You grow it in rows the same as any vegetable crop. In fact it uses less water than cane,” he said.