Last week’s long-awaited announcement of the calling of tenders for more than a quarter of a million megalitres of water in five gulf and north west river catchments has been welcomed by Richmond mayor John Wharton as “a great start”.
The announcement was made by Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lyneham last Friday, a move he said would drive jobs and growth in the regions.
“This tender delivers on the government’s commitment to unlock water to support sustainable agriculture, rural industry jobs and local development in gulf communities,” Dr Lynham said.
“The water is available from five geographic areas, with smaller volumes available in some areas of the catchment to suit smaller rural producers, and larger volumes in other areas to suit larger ventures.
“This will provide a tremendous boost for communities like Hughenden, Richmond, Julia Creek, Burketown, Croydon, Normanton, Mount Isa and Cloncurry and local businesses in those towns.”
As well as the 239,650ML that will be available for the Flinders River catchment, there is 2500ML available in the Gregory River catchment, 15,000ML in the lower Leichhardt River catchment. 4400ML in the Nicholson River subcatchment area, and 3000ML available in the Norman River catchment.
“Rivers need development on them,” Cr Wharton said. “People are working in isolation but it’s costing a lot of money for them to operate by themselves.”
He was not completely happy with the way the tenders had been structured, saying that the higher up the catchment the less water could be taken.
“The Flinders downstream doesn’t have the best soil types, and this doesn’t allow for a big operator around Richmond. Our area has been given a maximum annual volume of 70,000ML, but the exceptional O’Connell Creek project, which needs 100,000ML a year, can’t get started under these rules.”
He said the Flinders River had a flow of 200,000ML a day in flood, thanks to all the water running off the basalt country around Hughenden.
“We need to make sure the big fellows have enough water to build cotton gins and chickpea processing plants, but this is a great start.
“I’m not complaining – I just want to see something get started.”
The smaller allocations in the Gregory, lower Leichhardt, Nicholson and Norman Rivers came about thanks to public consultation prior to the development of the tender, which identified demand for water in the latter four catchments, according to a departmental spokesman.
“There was strong representations from those within the other river catchments for inclusion in the tender,” he said.
The 467,000ML reserve available in the Gilbert River won’t be made available until after the environmental impact assessment for the Integrated Food and Energy Development proposal had been completed. The $1.98 billion agri-business project near Georgetown proposes sugar and guar cropping, grazing, meat processing and aquaculture with water to be diverted from the Etheridge and Einasleigh Rivers.
Dr Lynham said he had listened to local communities, including the Member for Mount Isa Robbie Katter, about their needs.
“What I’ve heard from Mr Katter, the local councils, and the community is that they want to make sure that smaller and larger producers all get a chance to bid,” he said.
“That’s why government has taken this action, making different volumes of water available in different areas.”
He said water licences would include conditions to protect the environment and existing users’ access to water.
“Successful tenders will be granted a water licence for a specified volume of water per annum,” he said.
“The annual and daily volumes will ensure new water entitlements will not compromise the reliability of existing entitlements.
“Flow thresholds will ensure that peak flows continue to provide ecological benefits to waterholes, floodplains, estuaries and the important gulf fisheries.”
Dr Lynham said conforming tenders would be assessed through a transparent competitive tender process against the evaluation criteria and other information set out in the terms of sale.
The terms also set out daily volumes and thresholds in each of the catchment areas.
The Department of Natural Resources and Mines will now hold public information sessions in gulf communities to provide information about the tender process.
Tenders for Flinders water close on January 29, 2016.
