Article from Round the Ridges July 2006-07-19

Rick Elliot likes the plan to pipe water from the tropics to the parched allotments of South East Queensland.

“At least it shows that some people are thinking laterally about the water crisis facing this part of the State”, the anti dam campaigner said…….

……..Mr Elliot said the pipeline proposal outlined by the Cairns Mayor Kevin Byrne this week could work because it was “ actually taking water from where it is “ instead of building a dam which “ may or may not hold water”.

Cr Byrne has challenged Premier Beattie to think “Smart” in the State’s current water crisis and consider the opportunity to “piggy back” on the future construction of a gas pipeline from Papua New Guinea and build a parallel water pipeline that could carry water from the yet- to-be-built Nullinga Dam on the Walsh River, west of Mareeba to the South East.

“ This proposal deserves serious consideration before any decision is made on the flawed plan to dam the Mary River” Mr Elliot said. Cr Byrne said in a statement that the proponents of the PNG gas pipeline had spent 10 years planning the projects and had the necessary agreements in places such as Native Titles and easement access.

“So why not piggy back a water pipeline along the same route,” he said. Cr Byrne said that the project would need to be developed as a private and public partnership and would require the involvement of a large development-focused financial institution like the Macquarie Bank.

“It would certainly fit into the Smart State vision and would serve multiple purpose.

The Far North would have an additional water storage facility which it will need in the next 15 years.

Communities along the pipeline would have access to clean, drinkable water:

The plan would negate the need to displace people from properties earmarked for the future dams in the South. The new FNQ water source would be used to “top up” existing southern dams when the need arose.

Everybody is trumpeting up the current situation as a water crisis-I believe it is a crisis in thinking and has arisen due to a failure to plan ahead for critical water infrastructure”, he said.

“It is time for the State Government to bring the Nullinga Dam proposal out of mothball, and put it right back on the political agenda.

“The dam would serve as a significant water storage facility that would capture some of the estimated 2 metres of rainfall the Far North experiences every wet season that simply runs out to sea.”

The Nullinga Dam, proposed for the Walsh River west of Dimbulah, would cost in the vicinity of $120 million and have a capacity to hold some 350,000 megalitres of water.

Cr Byrne said building the dam on the Walsh River would also remove the need to replace long-term residents of the Mary Valley who were now battling the Government to retain their properties.

For more information on the Bradfield Scheme: