Calls for hydro rethink

ELISABETH CHAMPION CALLS to revive a long-abandoned idea for a hydroelectric plant on the Tully River are gaining momentum.

Member for Hinchinbrook Andrew Cripps said he had written to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce requesting the Federal Government support an updated feasibility study for the Tully Millstream Hydroelectric Scheme.

“The Tully Millstream project would be a major renewable energy project for North Queensland, using a technology that is proven, in a region where rainfall is reliable,” Mr Cripps said.

He said he had asked the Government to provide resources to update a feasibility study completed in 1988.

“That document is now almost 30 years old and needs to be reviewed to take into consideration the many changes that have occurred in terms of environmental regulation, energy markets and the transmission network,” he said.

“The merits of the project have been known for several decades, but stalled after the Wet Tropics declaration in 1988, which also cost this region its sustainable timber industry.”

The idea for the scheme was first put up by the old Queensland Electricity Commission in 1986. It involved two weirs, two dams, a pumping station and power station to be built at Millstream Falls in Ravenshoe to produce electricity.

Plans were abandoned amid controversy about potential environmental impact.

“So far I have received support from Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch and other MPs and from a number of people in the local community,” Mr Cripps said.

He said the North Queensland Conservation Council and Kennedy MP Bob Katter opposed the project.