Growing the Pilbara Department of A prefeasibility assessment of the potential Primary Industries and Regional Development for irrigated agriculture development Growing the Pilbara — A prefeasibility assessment of the potential for irrigated agriculture development 1 November 2017 Disclaimer The Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and the State of Western Australia accept no liability whatsoever by reason of negligence or otherwise arising from the use or release of this information or any part of it. © Western Australian Agriculture Authority, 2017 3 Baron-Hay Court, South Perth WA 6151 Tel: (08) 9368 3333 Email: [email protected] dpird.wa.gov.au COVER (MAIN): Photo courtesy: Nathon Dyer RIGHT: Photo courtesy: Nathon Dyer Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Growing the Pilbara A prefeasibility assessment of the potential for irrigated agriculture development A Pilbara Hinterland Agricultural Development Initiative Growing the Pilbara — A prefeasibility assessment of the potential for irrigated agriculture development 3 Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................... 6 Water resources ........................................................... 25 Executive summary ...................................................... 8 Groundwater ............................................................... 25 Introduction ................................................................... 10 Targeted aquifers ........................................................ 26 Non-targeted aquifers ................................................. 26 About this report ........................................................... 12 Mine Dewater Surplus ................................................. 30 Scope of research ..........................................................13 Surface water ............................................................. 32 History of irrigation in the Pilbara ..................................14 Managed Aquifer Recharge .......................................... 34 Stakeholder attitudes to irrigation development in the Pilbara ............................16 Prospective targets for further investigation ................ 36 Stakeholder survey findings ..........................................16 Small scale development .............................................. 39 Social, environmental and economic consideration ...... 39 Case study — Woodie Woodie pilot project Resource validation ...................................................... 40 summary .........................................................................18 Market opportunities and economics Land and water resources ......................................... 20 of irrigation in the Pilbara ...........................................42 Soil and land resources ................................................. 21 Market opportunities and economics of irrigation .........42 Land capability for irrigation ......................................... 22 Biofuels .......................................................................46 Identifying areas most capable of supporting Carbon farming ...........................................................48 irrigated agriculture ....................................................... 24 Grain, fibre and horticultural crops ................................49 4 Growing the Pilbara — A prefeasibility assessment of the potential for irrigated agriculture development Economics of pastoral enterprises and the role of irrigation ..............................................................50 Investment in pastoral beef production ........................ 51 Profit drivers of irrigated system ...................................53 Irrigation enables flexibility ............................................55 Regulatory and approval pathways for irrigation development ..................................................................56 Water requirements for fodder production .....................57 Applying for a permit ...................................................57 Environmental approvals required for fodder production .....................................................58 Applying for a land clearing permit ...............................58 Indigenous interests .......................................................59 Mining interests .............................................................59 Tenure requirements for irrigated agriculture ................60 Applying for a permit ...................................................61 Growing the Pilbara — A prefeasibility assessment of the potential for irrigated agriculture development 5 Acknowledgements The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) is planning for the future of irrigated agriculture development in the Pilbara through the Pilbara Hinterland Agricultural Development Initiative (PHADI), made possible with State Government investment. PHADI was delivered by DPIRD in partnership with the Pilbara Development Commission (PDC) and the then, Department of Regional Development, and worked closely with the mining industry, Aboriginal groups and pastoral industry. Thanks to the PHADI project team who contributed to chapters of this report; Chris Schelfhout, John Simons, Paul Galloway, Rob Sudmeyer, Brad Plunkett, Lisa Chalmers, Megan Hevron, Kim Brooksbank, Vicki McAllister and Geoff Moore. Thanks to Miriam Elms for assistance with project coordination and to Verity White for guidance on publication of this report. Gus Tampalini and Kevin Lee are acknowledged for their ongoing contribution to the project and review of this report. Photo courtesy: Brenda Powell 6 Growing the Pilbara — A prefeasibility assessment of the potential for irrigated agriculture development Growing the Pilbara — A prefeasibility assessment of the potential for irrigated agriculture development 7 Executive summary This report – Growing the Pilbara – details the findings of the Pilbara Hinterland Agricultural Development Initiative (PHADI). It delivers a prefeasibility level assessment of the irrigation development opportunities in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The PHADI project focused on the pastoral rangelands area of the Pilbara. Covering 270 000 square kilometres (km2) it encompassed all local government areas in the region. The study excluded desert areas of the eastern Pilbara. Rangeland beef production is the dominant agricultural activity in the region. There is approximately 2550 hectares (ha) of irrigation in the region, used primarily for improved pasture and fodder production. Over 100GL of potential water resources were identified across ten sites, equating to approximately 5000 to 12 000ha of irrigable land. Mine dewater surplus (MDS) alone has been shown not to be a sustainable long-term reliable water supply, but rather is an opportunistic source of water best used in conjunction with other water resources. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) provides a local opportunity to capture and store surface water flows and/ or discharged mine dewater surplus. The challenge of using mine dewater surplus to support irrigated agriculture is to minimise the variability of supply by determining effective methods to capture, transmit and store the water. A new approach to land analysis identified over two million hectares of class A1 land, far exceeding available water resources required to irrigate such an area. Photo courtesy: Nathon Dyer 8 Growing the Pilbara — A prefeasibility assessment of the potential for irrigated agriculture development Climate studies highlighted the challenges of high evaporative demand Analysis of the regulatory pathways required for irrigation development facing irrigators, as well as the probability of increasing winter and revealed the complexity of the approvals process for pastoral spring temperatures over the coming decade. Studying climate diversification, and for land tenure change. This included the regulatory conditions of the inland and elevated parts of the Pilbara revealed an requirements for environmental approvals, securing the use of opportunity for production of certain horticultural crops that require an appropriate water resources and for aboriginal heritage issues. element of winter chill unit accumulation. The Pilbara has land and water resources to support a number of Biofuel production in the Pilbara would require considerable scale irrigation developments. These developments are likely to be mosaic to be viable and compete with existing demand for livestock fodder. in nature, ranging from several hundred to, at most, several thousand Introducing irrigated agriculture into existing pastoral systems may hectares. These developments will target a number of different however enable these businesses to participate in carbon farming groundwater aquifers and surface water flows, rather than occur as activities. a large scheme based on a single water resource. Mine dewater may be used to augment another water resource supporting irrigation The Pilbara’s location and climate make crops with export potential development but is unlikely to be relied upon as a sole, consistent to the Middle East and Asia potentially attractive. High value markets and enduring supply. There may be many smaller scale opportunities include cassava, sesame seeds, sorghum and cotton, however accessing water resources of less than 5GL but, to be viable assessment of agronomic performance and biosecurity issues