GIVE BACK OUR LIQUID ASSETS Yabulu shut but water resources remain locked

THE Yabulu nickel refinery is closed and in mothballs, but there is still no signal from the State Government that vast underground water reserves once assigned to it will be placed in the public domain.

Hinchinbrook electorate residents want to know why.

Herveys Range cattleman George Yardley says that since the nickel refinery closed almost two years ago there has been a vast improvement in the underground water supply.

He said when the plant was operating there were periods, especially in droughts, when underground reserves for livestock watering almost dried up.

Mr Yardley has a permit to draw underground water for cattle and for domestic use, but there are others who can’t access the valuable resource just 30m below the surface.

Mr Yardley said the water was waiting to be used but he doubted anything would happen while the fate of the nickel plant remained in limbo.

LNP Hinchinbrook MP Andrew Cripps said the Government’s Natural Resources and Mines Minister Dr Anthony Lynham was confused about the water issue and unable to make a decision on its usage.

“It will be two years in January since the refinery operated. There was so much hardship created then with the loss of jobs. No one in government seems to know what to do and this looks set to continue while the refinery is in care and maintenance,” Mr Cripps said.

Mr Cripps said he believed the longer the refinery re- mained closed, the less likely that it would reopen.

“The Government has not given us any clarity. We need to know what is happening so that the community here that lost so many jobs can start moving forward,” he said.

Katter’s Australian Party candidate for Hinchinbrook Nick Dametto said he had taken “nearly 25” phone calls over the past two days from people in the greater Yabulu area asking about underground water accessibility.

He said people understood that when the refinery was operating it needed a guaranteed water supply. “But, while it is not operating, why can’t this water be used? A lot of people at North Shore where I live would love to have access to underground water. A lot of these people used to work at the refinery but lost their jobs when it closed,” he said.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation candidate Margaret Bell said she doubted anything would be done with the underground water until the future of the Queensland Nickel refinery was decided.

Dr Lynham’s office referred the Bulletin to the minister’s previous response to a question in Parliament, in which he said the refinery was covered by an agreement that has “the force of law”. “The agreement does not define what ‘ cease operations’ is, and QNI Resources & QNI M e t a l s have the rights to the water,” Dr Lynham said.

Labor candidate for Hinchinbrook Paul Jacob could not be reached for comment yesterday.