Warning on dams promise

THE Wilderness Society has hit back at claims Northern Australia could become an irrigated food bowl through the creation of super-dams.

The environmental advocacy group’s national director Lyndon Schneiders said the move would be a multibilliondollar waste of time.

“Northern Australia will never be a food bowl,” he said.

“It’s a graveyard for costly failed agricultural projects.

“All big irrigation projects have been expensive spectacular failures, including the Ord and Camballin in Western Australia and Humpty Doo in the Northern Territory.”

The CSIRO released the findings of its Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment earlier this week, identifying four potential dam sites in the Mitchell catchment in Far North Queensland.

Mr Schneiders warned people to be wary of proposals being given new life when governments were in the death throes.

“These proposals were trotted out in the dying days of the Howard and the second Rudd governments and here they are again,” he said.

Katter’s Australian Party candidate for Leichhardt Daniel McCarthy echoed the statement but not the sentiment.

“Nullinga Dam is a classic case in point having been ‘on the drawing board’ for over 50 years,” he said.

“People have had a enough of false promises, we need action on dams.

“We know it doesn’t just happen overnight, but we need to stop mucking around and get on with it.”