While last week’s unexpected announcement of the release of 92,500 megalitres of water in the Flinders and Gilbert River catchments has been welcomed by the Flinders River Agricultural Precinct, it is urging the government to start returning money made from existing licences to northern communities.
It has also asked that the 23 landholders whose tenders for water were knocked back by the Department of Natural Resources in April have their issues re-addressed so they can be offered water first, particularly as they believe a number of the issues that caused them to be rejected were only minor.
Natural Resources and Mines Minister Anthony Lynham told a parliamentary estimates hearing last week that 92,500ML of water would be made available from late August in the Flinders and Gilbert River catchments.
“We know there is demand in this area primarily from agricultural producers wanting to expand as well as add value to their enterprises,” he said. “This release will satisfy this demand, quickly.”
The water will be unallocated water from the general reserve and comes on top of water licences totalling 100,000 megalitres granted earlier this year in the Gulf water plan area.
Some 220,000ML of water entitlements have been granted in the Flinders catchment to date and another 631,550ML of general reserve remains unallocated in the Gulf water plan area.
The department is proposing that the latest release will be at a fixed price rather than a tender process, saying this would “enable the rapid and efficient release of water – and that’s ideal for high value existing enterprises or shovel-ready projects that need water”.
FRAP spokeswoman, Sara Westaway, said while the fixed price method had its advantages, no-one had been in favour of it to date.
“It is very unexpected that the Minister and his department have said this is how it would be rolled out.
“Firstly, how would the fixed price be determined and how would the department assess each application,” Sara asked.
She queried whether one landholder would be able to purchase 10 separate lots of 9250ML for one parcel, and whether these would have different fixed price amounts for different reaches.
FRAP has strongly suggested that the Flinders River share of the 92,000ML be shared through the different reaches in amounts of between 5000 and 10,000ML lots, in line with the CSIRO study that suggested mosaic farming incorporating ring tanks and water diversions.
“There is enough high volume water that has been allocated to big projects and while we certainly want these projects to progress, we also would like the water fairly divided up and down the river,” Sara said.
“This creates ‘an industry’ and will assist with expertise and equipment that can be shared between multiple farms.
“It would increase employment in the regions with faster take-up and use of the water than the slower, bigger projects that are still seeking investment to be able to begin development.”
‘Extracting millions of dollars not driving growth’
A recent meeting between FRAP and AgForce’s grains board identified that over $10 million has been extracted by the government, largely going into Treasury coffers, which they would like to invested directly in greenfields development in north western communities.
“Simply allocating the water and extracting millions of dollars out of the regional area is not driving growth or jobs in the north west,” Sara said. “If the conservative figure of $70/ML was given to the fixed price to this next water release, that’s another $6.5 million that would be extracted out of our communities without any sign of it coming back into the community to build this industry.”
AgForce water spokesman, Kim Bremner welcomed the water release announcement, saying they were keen to see the water releases converted to on-the-ground development and flow on to employment and economic benefits as soon as possible.
"Many of the producers we spoke to missed out in the previous water tender process and have been frustrated only a small amount of allocated water has been used so far, so a new release of water now is timely, and consultation with local stakeholders on the sale conditions will be important.”
The joint meeting identified that financial assistance was needed in the areas of developing land and water storages, having access to machinery, and getting access to expertise through mentoring and exchange programs.
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
