Demand Assessment Meetings for Interested Irrigators at Barlil & West Barambah, Blackbutt and Gordonbrook Dam

from Monday 28 March to Tuesday 29 March 2022.

Council has been working with the Australian and Queensland Government’s to develop options for rural water infrastructure. Mayor, Brett Otto described the next stage of the water study as a key progression towards achieving tangible outcomes and is encouraging stakeholders, particularly farmers from across the region to engage in the upcoming demand assessment process. Water is the lifeblood of our rural communities and we need to get this right, the mayor said.

Stakeholders with current or potential interest in the Barlil and West Barambah Weirs project, and those irrigators and growers in Blackbutt and Mt Binga or nearby Gordonbrook Dam are invited to participate.

Regional Development portfolio holder Councillor Kirstie Schumacher said these workshops will allow those with a current or potential irrigation need to indicate how much water they currently use, how much water they could use and what they would be willing to pay to do so.

“Demand and willingness to pay will determine how these projects are progressed, what further investigations are required and will help to inform decisions such as the size of potential storages at Barlil Weir and West Barambah Weir.

“Direct feedback about each stakeholder’s water needs will help Council and the KBR team to understand the potential of future economic growth if we were to improve water reliability and will be critical to determining the feasibility of pursuing these options.

“Council intends to work with all stakeholders and levels of government to progress these projects beyond the Strategic Business Case, however this cannot occur without feedback from those with direct or potential irrigation needs.

“We know we can grow almost anything in the South Burnett, we have the soils, available workforce and knowledge to expand irrigated agriculture and produce high value crops, with reliable water we can create more jobs and a stronger and more diversified economy”, she said.

Council has engaged consultants KBR and project leaders Matt Bradbury, Christopher Hewitt and Angus MacDonald who will be meeting with stakeholders at the following locations to conduct the targeted assessments:

Blackbutt Growers and Irrigators: Monday 28 March 2022 from 12:30pm at Blackbutt QCWA Tearooms, Blackbutt

• This project will investigate the options to provide new water to the highly fertile agricultural area of Blackbutt and Mt Binga by leveraging existing water infrastructure, including greater utilisation of the Wivenhoe pipeline.  The project aims to identify any associated infrastructure requirements to deliver water from the centralised off-take to individual water users.

Barlil and West Barambah Weirs: Monday 28 March 2022 from 4:00pm at the Murgon Town Hall, Murgon

• This project will further investigate building new weirs on Barambah Creek to increase water reliability on existing allocations and/or provide new water allocations.  Other potential solutions include the construction of Barlil Weir (135km upstream of its convergence with the Burnett River and about 8km north-west of the township of Murgon).  The Barlil Weir could have a capacity of 1,000ML and annual yield of 3,000ML. This will also improve alignment of agricultural water allocations to demand in areas containing fertile soils. The potential construction of an additional weir at West Barambah is also being investigated as part of a joint strategy to address reliability to producers along the Barkers/Barambah scheme.

Converting the use of Gordonbrook Dam from urban water supply to irrigation supply: Tuesday 29 March 2022 from 9:00am at the Kingaroy Town Hall, Kingaroy

• Gordonbrook Dam is a 6,600ML storage that currently provides urban water to Kingaroy.  This project aims to investigate and determine the best future use of the dam, with consideration of the water treatment challenges faced when the dam capacity falls below 50%.  This project will assess the viability of converting Gordonbrook Dam to irrigation-only use in the medium and long term.

“The feedback and expressions of interest received will inform how Council will proceed with the next stage of business cases for infrastructure development”, Cr Schumacher said.

All interested parties are encouraged to come along and participate.