Keith Campbell
July 5, 2016
The South Burnett Regional Council will undertake a research project to assess the potential economic benefits of introducing more irrigation into the region.
The research will be done by South Burnett Directions at the request of Mayor Keith Campbell.
Mayor Campbell, who has been a long-time irrigation advocate, said on Tuesday he would like to see the South Burnett benefit from the National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility announced in this year’s Federal Budget.
This initiative gives State Governments access to a $2 billion concessional loans scheme for building dams, pipelines and aquifer recharge projects over the next 10 years.
This is in addition to a $500 million National Water Infrastructure Development Fund which was announced in an agricultural white paper last year.
“The South Burnett is an agricultural area and I’ve always believed that if our farmers could get access to irrigation they could boost their productivity,” Mayor Campbell said.
“But we first need to find out if our farmers would take advantage of irrigation if it was available; what they’d produce if they did; and what impact this would have in terms of jobs.
“We need to develop a sound business case for irrigation that we can take to the State Government, and that’s what I’ve asked South Burnett Directions to do.”
The Mayor said he didn’t think irrigation would extend to every part of the region, but prime agricultural areas could reap significant benefits.
“We are lucky to have industries like PCA, Bean Growers, Swickers and Proteco in the South Burnett, but big industries like these don’t come along every day,” the Mayor said.
“If irrigation could get our farmers employing more people, then I think this is something we should seriously look at.”
