Queries over water plan
A STUNNI STUNNING encounter with whales just off the Townsville coast has been captured on camera.
Bushland Beach man Carl Phillips was boating about 8.30am last Friday when a pod of whales surrounded him as he travelled to Magnetic Island from Bay Rock, about 20km north of Townsville. LANDSCAPE and garden professionals are questioning Townsville’s water strategies as Mayor Jenny Hill indicates the $ 215 million pipeline will be little more than an emergency resource.
Benalla Nursery owner Doug Thomson said the easing of restrictions was welcome but the community needed to continue to focus on the future.
“We must ensure that the
The amateur photographer said it was an incredible interaction.
“I was heading towards the island past Bay Rock from the north to take some photos,” Mr Phillips said.
“I stopped to get a photo and noticed a splash in the ocean out further and thought it was a wave, but then realised there were a lot new pipeline is used as a continuous supplementary source and that funding is always in place for the pumping costs,” he said. “Ratepayers in Townsville need to see a return to Level 1 or restriction free usage. They also need to be confident this target is both part of the future water security plan and is achievable.”
Landscape architect Simon O’Connell said the new Level 2 restrictions continued to be a severe restraint on water use. more and they were heading towards me.
“All of a sudden, there were groups of three and four whales popping up everywhere around me.”
Mr Phillips said the whales came as close as a couple of hundred metres from the coast.
“It was amazing, I felt like David
Mr O’Connell said the landscape, generally, was seriously stressed and it was essential the city used some of the abundant supplies in the dam to nurse it back to good health.
In a statement, Cr Hill said use of the pipeline would be determined by Ross River Dam levels while minimising evaporation and pumping costs.
“The new pipeline will be able to provide significantly more water to the dam much more efficiently because Attenborough,” he said. “I motored slowly along with the pod of probably 30 whales all the way around to Horseshoe Bay where I left them to their journey.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before, it was unreal.”
Mr Phillips said there were no other boats in sight. it is a bigger diameter – 1.8m,” she said.
“The use of the pipeline will be determined by dam levels so if the dam is full or close to it, council won’t be pumping to top up the water level.
“The pipeline will be used in the most efficient manner to ensure there is sufficient water in Ross River Dam to meet the city’s needs while minimising evaporation and also pumping costs.”
Cr Hill said the council
“I stopped and looked for a second, then rushed to put the zoom lens on my camera,” he said.
” It was amazing to see the baby ones swimming along with their parents. They seemed quite friendly like they enjoyed the fact the boat was in the ocean with them.”
ANDREW BACKHOUSE was also investigating a recycled water system for industrial use and large- scale irrigation to help the city use water more wisely.
Council CEO Adele Young told a recent Property Council luncheon the new pipeline, recycled wastewater and demand management would “banish Brownsville as a tag for the next 20 years and longer”.
Mr Thomson, an industry representative, said gardens were an integral part of a resi- dence and that the exercise and therapy of working in a garden should not be stifled by a culture of water restrictions.
“If the city is to experience future tourist growth, there has to be a concerted effort to ensure the city landscape, both residential and parklands, conveys a tropical oasis in the dry tropics,” he said.
Work on the Haughton pipeline is expected to begin mid- year for completion in December next year.