Sine aqua,non est vita. Without water, there is no life.

RDATN Regional Water Summit 22 September 2020 1 Executive Summary

Globally,

• is the driest inhabited continent on earth

• has only 1% of the available fresh water

• is one of the highest consumers per capita of water. (Source: Statista.com #1 United States; #6 Australia)

Far North is one of the fastest growing regions in the nation and has twice the national annual rainfall, yet we have not constructed a water storage facility in 70 years and are consuming fresh water at an increasing rate.

Numerous end-users compete for the available water including urban, industrial, agricultural, recreational and environmental.

Simply put, there is less water to go round.

2 RDA Tropical North, in consultation with regional authorities and interested parties, seeks to raise awareness and prioritise our strategic water needs into the next 20-30 years, on a regional basis. Increasingly concerned about the haphazard and often poorly informed approach to the selection, implementation and management of major water infrastructure projects in our region, RDATN convened a summit of key stakeholders to start the discussion about our future.

The results were both surprising and reassuring.

Thank you

David Kempton Chair Regional Development Australia Tropical North

3 Methodology RDA Tropical North facilitated and hosted regional mayors, water and waste infrastructure managers, water experts and observers and regional development organizations. Dr Chris Chilcott, Acting Deputy Director and Research Leader for Northern Australia of CSIRO, opened the session with a presentation that provided an enlightening yet sobering perspective to our national water position. (Appendix:1)

Attendees were then invited to prepare and present a summary of their prioritised water strategy, project or idea to the group. Attendees broke into 8 workshop groups to dissect and discuss each of the projects to determine and examine the cost (per megalitre/ML), purpose or use, timing, regional benefits, proponents and the pros and cons. (Lakeland Irrigation Area Scheme (LIAS) was not included in this process as it is fast approaching reality with the detailed business case study well underway.)

The project analysis from each workshop group was presented and attendees were asked to prioritise the top five projects based on cost, regional benefit, purpose/use, timing and risk analysis.

This process was designed to prioritise the projects taking into consideration competing needs and community demands. It did not measure any singular project against another in terms of feasibility or detailed cost/benefit analysis.

4 Speaker Profile Dr. Chris Chilcott Darlene Irvine Joe Moro Dr. Chris Chilcott is a rangeland ecologist with over 20 years’ Darlene Irvine is the Executive Officer of Far Born in Mareeba, Joe is a dedicated and experienced farmer and

experience in the agricultural sector, largely in livestock industries. Regional Organisation of Councils (FNQROC). She has worked with proprietor of the family farming business and now solely grows

Chris leads CSIRO’s work on developing Northern Australia based at FNQROC member councils since 2001. mango. As President of Mareeba District Fruit and Vegetable

the Darwin laboratory. He is responsible for facilitating strategic, Over the last 18 years she has managed many regional collaborative Growers Association since 1995, this has led him to have a long

multidisciplinary and collaborative research relevant to the projects across Road and Transport, Civil Engineering Guidelines involvement with a number of community activities, organisations

development of the north. Chris’ most recent research has focused (Development Manual), Regional Planning, Asset Management, and interests. He is a strong voice and advocate on a wide range of

on identifying the scale and location of opportunities for developing Water and Waste Water, Recycling, Natural Assets, Economic economic development activities for the

northern Australia including work relating to mosaic irrigation, Development and regional Procurement. Community in his additional roles as Committee Member of RDA

transport logistics and biosecurity. Appendix 3: Presentation Tropical North, President of the Mareeba Chamber of Commerce and

Appendix 1: Presentation as Director of the Queensland Farmers Federation.

Appendix 2: CSIRO Report - Mitchell catchment

5 Project Assessment, Workshop and Results 6 Workshop Session

Working in groups, attendees were asked to discuss and answer the following about each project:-

• Cost and benefit (cost per megalitre)

• Purpose/use i.e. agriculture, urban, industrial, environmental

• Timing

• Regional benefits

• Proponents

7 Projects Summary

Douglas Shire Council’s alternate raw water intake at Drumsara Quarry site and untreated water storage reservoir

o Construction of alternate raw water intake at Drumsara site on Mossman providing a secondary source of raw water to treatment plant at times when primary source is restricted by flowrate and licence conditions and detailed design of one gigalitre untreated water storage reservoir.

Cairns Regional Council’s Water Security Strategy

o Mulgrave – Stage 1 (Including Behana Creek) - New water supply intake on the to deliver up to 20 ML/d to a new water treatment plant and a new water treatment plant to treat up to 20 ML/d from Mulgrave River and up to 40 ML/d from the existing Behana Creek intake (total 60 ML/d capacity). Costing $198.2m (P50); $225m (P90), the project will yield an Incremental increase in yield attributable to greater utilisation of Behana Creek = 500 ML/a and an incremental increase in yield attributable to the taking of water from Mulgrave R = 3,000 ML/a. It will create 522 jobs in construction, an additional 385 jobs in related industry. There will be 5FTE ongoing positions to operate and maintain the treatment plant. GRP in is estimated to increase by $166.67M.

o Mulgrave – Stage 2 - Augmentation of the Mulgrave River and Draper Road WTP (33 ML/d additional capacity, total 93 ML/d capacity). Costing $75.7m (P50); $88.2m (P90), the project will yield an incremental increase of 2,000 ML p/a and create 204 jobs in construction, an additional 151 jobs in related industry. GRP in Cairns is estimated to increase by $65.34M.

8 Projects Summary

o Barron River – Stage 1 - New water supply intake, pump station, and pipeline delivering to a new water treatment plant at Kamerunga (25 ML/d). Costing $92.2m (P50); $104.0m (P90) the project will yield 7,500 ML p/a and create 241 jobs created in construction sector, an additional 178 jobs in related industry. There will be 4FTE ongoing positions to operate and maintain the treatment plant. GRP in Cairns is estimated to increase by $77.04M. Barron River – Stage 2 - Augmentation to water supply pump station and Kamerunga water treatment plant (additional capacity of 25 ML/d, total capacity 50 ML/d). Costing $24.0m (P50); $27.8m (P90) the project will yield an incremental increase of 6,500 ML/and create 64 jobs during construction sector, an additional 48 jobs in related industry. GRP in Cairns is estimated to increase by $20.59M.

Gilbert River Irrigation Project

o Costing $887m (P90), the 323,577ML Gilbert River Dam 30kms west of Georgetown has a nominated yield of 130ML supporting 17,900 hectares of new irrigated agriculture and creating over 370 jobs in construction and 2250 ongoing FTEs.

Lakeland Irrigation Scheme

o Construction of a 195GL hydro powered dam on the westerly flowing in Lakeland. The scheme will 80,000ML pa and facilitate 8,000 ha high value crops (16,000 ha indirect) and create 1000 construction jobs and 1200 FTE on completion.

9 Projects Summary

New Chillagoe Bore

o Limited reliability of groundwater from the bores that supply Chillagoe Water Treatment Plant has resulted in Level 3 water restrictions since November 2017. To ensure ongoing water security for Chillagoe, Council has completed investigations into a $2.5 million alternative groundwater supply.

North Diversion Scheme

o The diversion of water from the North Johnstone River to Tinaroo Falls Dam to provide a low capital cost opportunity to improve both yield (30,000ML p/a or more) and reliability of Tinaroo Falls Dam, protecting the viability of existing irrigators on both the Atherton Tablelands and the Mareeba-Dimbulah Irrigation Area and facilitating higher value produce.

Nullinga Dam

o Construction of a 74GL stand-alone dam costing $1.068 billion on the to unlock additional agricultural production worth around $200 million per annum.

10 Projects Summary

Tablelands Irrigation Project (Woodleigh Dam)

o Construction of a 35GL dam costing between $304-$364m at Woodleigh on the Millstream River to irrigate 4,200ha and allow the transition from beef cattle to higher value cropping with estimated benefits to the region of $2.2 billion over the next 30 years.

The FNQ Water Security Project

o Construction of three dams on the Beatrice River, Dirran Creek and North Johnstone River with a combined yield of 380 GL p/a to resupply , augmenting the existing regional water supply.

11 Cairns Regional Council Water Security Strategy

Start at the Mulgrave River – Forecast Demand and LoS Yield Appendix 4: Cairns Regional Council – ‘Our Water Security’

12 Results

CRC Water Gilbert River New Nth Johnstone FNQ Water Tablelands Drumsara Nullinga Dam Weightings Security Chillagoe Bore River Security Irrigation Alternate Raw Diversion Project Water and Untreated Water Storage Gold (5) 6 (30) 5 (25) 0 2 (10) 4 (20) 1 (5) 3 (15) 0

Blue (4) 3 (12) 4 (16) 7 (28) 3 (12) 2 (8) 0 1 (4) 1 (4)

Green (3) 7 (21) 5 (15) 4 (12) 2 (6) 2 (6) 2 (6) 0 1 (3)

Orange (2) 0 4 (8) 2 (4) 4 (8) 0 9 (18) 1(2) 2 (4)

Yellow (1) 2 (2) 1 (1) 2 (2) 4 (4) 1 (1) 0 5 (5) 7 (7)

TOTAL (324) 65 65 46 40 35 29 26 18

TOTAL (100%) 20.06 % 20.06 % 14.20 % 12.35 % 10.80 % 8.95 % 8.02 % 5.56 %

13 14 Outcome

The outcome indicated that first and foremost there is a sense of urgency to secure water for our urban needs. Not only in major centres e.g. Cairns, but also in small towns such as Chillagoe within 5 years.

For Cairns city this will be achieved by the Behana water treatment facility and by considering the best option to improve utilisation of the allocation from the Barron River.

Second to the urban needs are large scale viable agriculture projects such as the Gilbert River. Agriculture continues to be the mainstay of our regional economy.

The proposal to “top up” Tinaroo by way of a diversion from the North Johnstone River attracted attention however it requires considerable further work in relation to feasibility and impact.

There is a preparedness to consider all options to boost the available water to growers on the Tablelands with a clear indication of the sensitivity to water quality and the delivery cost ML/hectare.

Nullinga Dam is an option in the longer term. However for now, it is considered not viable.

Whilst Mareeba, Douglas and Cassowary Coast Shires have localised requirements, it is recognised that any long-term strategy for the region should take into account these needs irrespective as to the state of current projects.

15 Next steps

A further forum will be held in Mareeba to engage with growers, stakeholders and broader interest groups to determine a level of support for the current proposals and to explore other options.

Strategic funding will be sought to undertake further business case development. Additional advocacy and investment will be sought for implementation and construction of the preferred projects.

16 Photo Gallery 17 18 19 20 21 22 FOLLOW THIS LINK TO WIN News Coverage Thursday 24th September 2020

23 Appendices

Number Details

Appendix 1 Presentation: Dr Chris Chilcott, Acting Deputy Director and Research Leader for Northern Australia, CSIRO

Appendix 2 CSIRO – Water Resource Assessment for the Mitchell catchment

Appendix 3 Presentation: Darlene Irvine, Executive Officer - FNQROC

Appendix 4 Additional Information: Cairns Regional Council – ‘Our Water Security’

Appendix 5 RDATN Regional Water Summit Attendee List

24 RDATN Regional Water Summit Summary - 22 Sept 2020 Website Release V4.3