IT’S the 1.6-kilometre lifeline a south-west Queensland cattle station desperately needed.
After eight, long months of “chasing water” to sustain 42 troughs at Canoway Downs, north of Quilpie, a new bore started flowing earlier this month.
For the property’s managers, Gerard and Jody Tully, the new flow, producing water from the Great Artesian Basin, couldn’t have come soon enough.
The 93,078-hectare property, owned by Scott Turner, had a 90-year-old bore plugged and replaced in October 2013 under the Great Artesian Basin Sustainability Initiative (GABSI) round.
The initiative aimed was a join project between state and federal governments aimed at implementing sustainable use of basin groundwater.
The government scheme funded 80 per cent of the cost of Mr Turner’s bore, with the remaining 20pc paid for by him as the landholder.
Believed to be one of the deepest in Australia, the $680,000 bore was a feat to be marvelled out.
That was until the well became blocked.
In February, Mr Tully was checking the water in the cattle yards before branding, when he noticed the flow’s pressure had dropped off considerably.
He waited a few days, hoping it would “come good again”, but it only worsened.
Upon investigation by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM), Mr Turner and Mr Tully learnt of an obstruction about 800 metres down the hole.
It is thought the original drilling contractor which had done the work in 2013, and have since gone into receivership, didn’t fully line the bore with casing.
The Tullys embarked on an eight month experience of “constantly chasing water” to feed the pipeline and the thirsty bovine which relied on it.
If you don’t have water, you have nothing. You can supplement the feed, but you can’t do that with water.”
- Gerard Tully
They dried four dams and a big water hole on Canoway Downs over the period.
“There were a few points there when you know we had a day or two up our sleeve from one dam getting water, [before pumping] from another dam,” Mr Tully said.
He painstakingly checked, fixed and rearranged the 120 kilometres of pipeline, devoting up to four days each week to move water and to stop leaks.
“Everything was so marginal…we couldn’t afford to lose that water,” he said.
But running out of water and being forced to destock the remaining 2300-head of cattle was not an option for Mr Tully.
“I don’t like being beaten and I wasn’t going to let this,” he said.
Work on the new bore, sitting just 30m away from the sealed disaster, was completed on October 20.
A spokesperson for DNRM said the issue was fixed by the department at no cost to the landholder.
“It is important to note that GABSI funds were not used to fund this work,” the spokesperson said.
“Work on the water bore was funded internally by the Department...to meet its obligations to the landholder.”
The story comes as Paroo Shire Mayor Lindsay Godfrey calls on the state government to put stipulations in place in the new Great Artesian Basin Water Resource Plan to ensure all “bores that interact with the GAB are fully lined with approved casings”.
Submissions for the formulation of the new Great Artesian Basin Water Resource Plan, replacing the 2006 plan, are due to close on November 20.
