CAPE York Peninsula stakeholders fear the Palazczuk’s Government’s moves to develop a water resource plan for 15 rivers on the Cape will be another blow to the region’s economic development opportunities.
Minister for State Development and Natural Resources and Mines Dr Anthony Lynham announced a water resource plan would be developed for more than 100,000 square kilometres of the Cape.
No new water licence applications will be considered now until the plan is finalised by the end of 2018.
Alan Wilson, a Cook Shire councilor based in Laura, said water was critical for the Cape’s future.
“We need control over water,” Cr Wilson said.
“We have got to have some sort of control over building dams but we need water especially in Lakeland.
“With the poor seasons we are having now we need to be able to insulate the farms especially around Lakeland. They are expanding all the time at Lakeland and they need water. You can no longer rely on underground water.”
The proposed Cape York plan will cover an area from south of Cooktown in the east and Pormpuraaw in the west to the northern tip of Cape York, and includes 15 river basins that flow either into the Gulf of Carpentaria or the Coral Sea adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef.
Community consultation will include public information sessions in Cape York communities in June and July as well as written submissions, closing on 29 July.
Cape York Sustainable Futures deputy chair Jack Wilkie-Jans said the moratorium could impact on new water storages proposed for the Lakeland area.
“If you want to expand an industry such as agriculture around Lakeland which is a project our organisation was hoping to take ahead what happens to that project, that’s the concern,” Mr Wilkie-Jans said.
“I find that the fact that the State Government is looking towards water security in the Cape is an olive branch but when you slap a moratorium at a time when the Federal Government is supposed to be launching initiatives to the white paper it does hold things back.
“And what will the actual recommendations be?
“Will they say yes I think the Cape needs to build up water security so they can venture into things such as cropping and agriculture and play a role in northern Australia renaissance or will they say as they have done for so long like in the Cape York Regional Plan, the Cape needs to be closed up and locked away and the region suffers.”
Dr Lynham said a temporary moratorium was in place on new water licence applications and underground water bores until the plan was completed.
“It’s important that existing water entitlements are secured while scientific assessments are conducted and the plan developed,” Dr Lynham said.
“The Cape is the last frontier for water resource management in Queensland.
“It will support job-creating economic development in the north and protect downstream users and the environmental values of the Cape’s relatively-untouched river systems that flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria and onto the Great Barrier Reef.
“This plan will form part of our pristine rivers plan to ensure that the highest value river ecosystems are protected, in consultation with local communities.
“Proper planning will ensure existing water users, including rural landholders and Indigenous communities and enterprises, have secure supply and potentially, opportunity for future expansion.”
