TALE NEVER TYRES

highway before veering out onto the side of the road, through the long grass and smashing through the barbed wire stock fence. The 44 was still attached to it by the rope and still in the air behind it. I watched it travel at high speed through the paddock until it disappeared into scrub. I imagine Bob Ramsay’s grader tyre did much the same thing.

WORTHY RIDE

THE Buderim to Cairns Couch Cancer Ride participants who are covering 200km a day left Innot Hot Springs this morning and arrive in Cairns today. On this northern section of the 1900km ride they have come through Charters Towers, Greenvale, Lynd Junction and Mt Garnet before turning east for the Tableland and coast. They have raised over $ 70,000. Great effort.

EWEN RACES

TALKING of fundraising for worthy causes, the Ewen Races out there in the ironbark at Stockyard Creek on the Gregory Development Road west of Townsville are being held over the September 28- 29 weekend. Mark it in your diary. It’s great fun. If you have always wanted to go to a bush race meeting, this one is perfect. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know someone and can’t get into an established “camp” because there is plenty of public camping ground at

DAM LOT OF MONEY

THE Queensland LNP has promised to “look at” ( yes, that means give it the “mirror treatment”) funding a $ 10 million feasibility into raising the Burdekin Falls Dam wall. It has also promised funding for the Nullinga Dam on the Walsh River on the Tableland, for the Rookwood Weir at Rocky and the Urannah dam on the Broken River on the western slopes of the Eungella Dam.

THEY’RE DITHERING

GOOD on the LNP, but really does it have to put another $ 10 million into a feasibility for raising the Burdekin Dam wall? More years of dithering. More taxpayers’ dinero pouring into the pockets of consultants. The current State Government has already done a lot of work on this and it is still underway. The Department of State Development in conjunction with Sunwater has been for some time investigating the raising of the wall. The work is being done and it is being funded by none other than the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund. It’s a big deal. Do we really need another feasibility study done on top if it?

DONE AND DUSTED

THE argument for raising the Burdekin Dam is unassailable. The State Government when it built the dam in the early 1980s compensated graziers on whose land the water would cover. In addition it compensated them for the land they would lose when the 14- 15m Stage Two component of the dam was built. That’s right, the land for stage two has already been paid for. Done and dusted. That’s a saving of a few hundred million dollars before someone even rams a shovel into the first bag of cement. the racecourse. Toilets and showers on site, but it’s a swag affair. Be prepared to rough it. Barbecue sites available. Drive time from Townsville over Herveys Range is a bit under two hours. Last year Peter Roberts and his crew from the Mt Fullstop Station camp donated their $ 615 Calcutta winnings to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Divided among the 30- plus members in their Calcutta group it wasn’t much, but as a lump sum to the RFDS it was well and truly worthwhile. Calcutta winners, take note. How about you make it a year for the RFDS?

SUGAR TUMBLES

SUGAR prices have gone

STAGE TWO AWAITS

HARRY and Sue Shann on Myall Springs Station on the south side of the dam are an example. The BjelkePetersen Government paid them for 7284ha that would be inundated in Stage One and for 6070ha that would go under water when Stage Two was built. They are still running cattle on the Stage Two land. And so is every grazier around the dam who was compensated for the loss of Stage Two land in 1982.

HEIGHTENED HOPES

I WAS at Myall Springs and Harry Shann told me that the Bjelke- Petersen government officials told him that Stage Two would take the dam up another 15m. “But, we had a letter from Anna Bligh when she was Premier saying they were looking at two metres,” he said. When I was there at Myall Springs we drove around and looked at the dam. At one stage Harry stopped the vehicle and we looked out over the water bordering his property. What a wonderful sight it was out there among those low rocky hills. He wondered aloud that with all the good it could do, why the Government wouldn’t build it up to 15m. It would do for North and Central Queensland what no other dam has ever done before in Australia. It would waterproof Townsville forever. It would irrigate hundreds of square kilometres of land that is sitting and waiting for the plough. It would provide water for industry.

MISSING LEADERSHIP

WHERE are the Ted Lindays, the Bob Hawkes and the Joh Bjelke- Petersens of today? Ted Lindsay was our Herbert MP. Bob Hawke was Prime Minister and Joh was the Queensland Premier when the Burdekin Dam was built. Would they carry on like this about raising the dam wall? No way. They would have raised it 20 years ago. subterranean as a result of a glut coming out of India and Pakistan. Our sugarcane farmers have been down this road many times before and will batten the hatches. This situation where growers don’t make enough money to cover their farming costs will continue into next year. It is hoped there will be a turnaround in 2020.

TOWNS HIT HARD

IN the meantime farmers and the towns where they do their shopping will take a hit. Ingham will be hit hard. It has lost its ANZ bank and will lose its Suncorp branch in August. It is a reflection on what is happening in a community when two agricultural lenders like these pull the pin. Suncorp has been there since 1988 and the ANZ for more than half a century. Ingham is a monoculture. It’s economy relies on the fortunes of the sugar industry. There is not a lot of padding there once the sugar price goes over a cliff. It used to have a beef cattle side to its economy, but this has dwindled over the last two decades. Other sugar towns have broader economies. Innisfail has bananas ( it used to have a vibrant commercial fishing industry), the Burdekin has cattle and horticulture, Proserpine has cattle and tourism, Tully has bananas, the Tableland has cropping, horticulture, beef, dairying and tourism. It will be a rough two years for all of the sugar towns.