Charters Towers landholders in defence limbo over Christmas

They are one of 23 in the region living under the cloud of a possible resumption of their land to accommodate defence force training needs under an agreement with Singapore, and it’s in their thoughts every waking moment.

“It’s taken over our lives,” John said. “I’ve forgotten what my cows look like.

“The biggest question we have is, should we go ahead with our future planning – pivots up the river, water licences to trade, using soil testing results.”

“We’ve got seven kilometres of river frontage that we had plans for, and now we’re going to end up a hobby farm,” Di added. “What the defence department wants to take makes us not viable.”

It was a message that Pauline Hanson took on board when she visited the Brownson’s property, Forest Home, before Christmas.

“We’re talking about a tradition as a nation here, to look after our farming sector,” she commented after being appraised of the situation facing various graziers and the wider Charters Towers community.

“We won’t be able to feed ourselves one day. The Singapore deal isn’t worth this.

“I don’t believe in a cash grab now, we’ve got to look ahead to future generations.”

Serving the nation

The position the Brownson family has found itself in is especially ironic to Di, whose father, Eddie Lavery, had ‘reserved occupation’ status during World War II and was asked to stay home to serve the war effort as a drover.

“He had to bring the bullocks down from the Gulf for Queensland Stations, to Dotswood,” she said.

Running between 18,000 and 22,000 bullocks, the property, one of the first settled in the Townsville region in the 1860s, was taken over by the Commonwealth government during the Vietnam War era for army training purposes.

“Soon after it went out of the equation, the Pentland Meatworks shut,” said John. “It was a really big blow to the economy, and it shows what can happen here now.”

During the public meeting in Charters Towers prior to Christmas, stock and station agent Andrew Meehan estimated that the 23 affected producers ran between 24,000 and 30,000 head of cattle, and spent $60/head on animal health products at shops in the community.

In excess of 500 decks, mostly carted by local carriers, were taken off each year, with somewhere between $12m and $14m being made from cattle every year.

“Just ourselves, our input is $1.4m a year and we’re smaller than some of the others,” John said. “Charters Towers business is going to be a big loser in all this.”

John  asked why Singapore was allowed to “pick and choose the best room in the house”.

“We’ve been told that the brigadier in charge of investigating all this, Tim Bayliss, agreed that Dotswood (the Townsville Field Training Area) wasn’t being utilised as much as it could be,” he said.

“The government talks a lot about the food bowl and developing northern Australia, so why bomb your food bowl?”

He believed all that needed to be done was to close the road that runs from Mingela to the Hervey Range Road through the TFTA so that firing of a certain range could occur, and construct an alternate access road, possibly utilising the proposed Big Rocks Weir and bringing traffic towards Charters Towers.

Alternatively, he said an alternate proposal centred on land south of Pentland was under 40 minutes flying time to Townsville.

Ms Hanson said she would be making the point that Longton Station was a better solution when she spoke with defence minister Marise Payne.

“It’s more feasible – only one person owns it, it’s not as useful for cropping, and they’re willing to sell,” she said.

The department has since announced it will look into alternative sites, claimed as “an early win” by the Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter.