The Longreach Regional Council is considering an invitation to acquire the former Longreach Pastoral College site and its assets.
This follows a decision by the Queensland government not to fund the business case put to it by the Remote Area Planning and Development Corporation in 2020.
RAPAD CEO David Arnold said they had learnt of the government's decision after the state budget had been handed down, minus the $15 million requested for the business case, and a subsequent breaking of the news.
"We're obviously disappointed but in some ways it's a relief that a decision has been made," Mr Arnold.
"Our scenario was for up to $15m over five years to bring the college up to a sustainable operation, reducing the amount year by year.
"We - a number of stakeholders - wanted to bring it back to agricultural training and explore other scenarios - we thought we could have facilitated a rebirth of the agricultural college under a new model, with a different program offering.
"There was a risk in the first couple of years, to develop a new program - that's why there was the funding request."
FLASHBACK:
Mr Arnold expressed disappointment in the length of time it had taken the government to reject the business case.
"We took on the licence to occupy the former college in a caretaker mode, but it was predicated on getting an answer to the business case," he said.
"There have been any number of short-term office space uses put to us, and any number of tour groups have been using the dormitories.
"Bear in mind that we've had no access to the horse arena or the sheep and cattle husbandry areas."
Telstra is using an area as a trial call centre.
Agriculture Minister Mark Furner said the time had been taken up in investigating whether it was possible to make the RAPAD proposal work, but it wasn't supported.
He said they wanted to support proponents that want to help Longreach prosper by providing housing, tourism, training courses, transport or logistics and value-adding for local businesses.
"That's why we continue to work with the Longreach Regional Council and others to see which assets and options will best support the community," he said.
Longreach mayor Tony Rayner said his council would consider the invitation over the next few months, but it must be commercially viable for council to take on.
"We will consider whether we have a business need for the whole of the facility, part of it, or none of it," he said. "It's not core business for council but we do have a need for future growth."
The assets include a number of land parcels, which Cr Rayner said would sell very quickly.
"The campus is a more challenging prospect," he said. "Local ownership would be best, but it's got to be commercially viable."
Mr Arnold said he was sure any number of entities would like to purchase the college assets, and that time would tell if there was still a requirement for it for agricultural training.
"If industry wants it, industry will have to get behind it," he said.
"My take is that by knocking this back, the government has said, we're not prepared to be the funder - if they're not, it's a user pays system."
He added that if the government did offload the asset, he hoped it would go to interested parties that would develop it to its economic potential.
Speaking in May as RAPAD chairman, Cr Rayner said they had met with a range of large agricultural companies that had expressed an interest in tailored broadacre industry-specific training, consistent with the business plan RAPAD submitted to the government.
Mr Furner said the Palaszczuk government continued to invest strongly in agricultural training, with over $30 million invested in courses through TAFE, supporting more than 28,500 students.
"We are investing almost $12 million over the next four years on new agricultural training facilities in high schools," he said.
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