In the wake of the announcement last week that the Integrated Food and Energy Development project had failed to meet the state government deadline for submitting an Environmental Impact Statement for its $2 billion irrigated agriculture project in Far North Queensland, the Etheridge Shire Council has stepped into the breach with its own plan at Georgetown.
Mayor Warren Devlin met with Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lynham in Brisbane last Thursday to put the original Gilbert River vision back on the table, saying he had received a good hearing in George Street.
“We are acting on the basis of two community meetings within the last couple of months, that wanted to see this happen,” Cr Devlin said. “The meeting passed a resolution for council to act on their behalf, and we want to set up a beneficial entity of council, a business arm that would take a lead role in applying for grant money.”
The 2009 scoping brief on a proposed Gilbert River Agricultural Precinct examined a production scenario which assumed a dam of 300,000 ML capacity and 100,000 ML annual yield, and principal crops of rice and peanuts, but Cr Devlin said the size of any dam would vary, depending on feasibility study findings.
“Our vision, which includes the Green Hills dam, fell off the priority list federally over the last few years, so there is some work to do to get it back up there, but it was very pleasing to hear the state Minister say he supported our vision and was keen to be part of the process,” he said.
According to a ministerial spokesman, a number of agenda items were discussed between himself and Cr Devlin, including a community proposal put forward by the mayor.
“The minister looks forward to receiving more detail and holding further discussions with the appropriate parties over the coming months,” he said.
Money for a feasibility study will be top of the list of priorities being sought by the council now.
Cr Devlin said there had been a mixed reaction in the community to the news that the IFED proposal was “dead in the water”.
“Some were sorry to hear the news but most are keen to support council as it takes a lead role,” he said.
The original Gulf Savannah Development plan envisaged irrigating 13,800ha of land from a 300,000 ML storage, with a gross annual revenue of $68.8m.
IFED proposed to irrigate 64,000 hectares of sugar cane, guar bean and fodder crops, and build two water storages with capacity for two million megalitres.
Cr Devlin said the community plan would be more of a staged development and would involve people already in the district.
“We’ll be applying for a water allocation, but how much we won’t know until a feasibility study is done.”
He said the council’s quick response in the wake of the news that the IFED project’s coordinated status had lapsed after it failed to provide an EIS by a September 5 deadline, had come about because it had received feedback from the community that no research was being carried out.
“An EIS seemed unlikely,” Cr Devlin said. “We were there with a proposal to fill the void.”
The minister’s department said the government’s position on the release of unallocated water in the Gilbert River catchment was being considered.