A REVOLUTION
IT is happening out in the west.
The agricultural juggernaut is starting to roll. Richmond Mayor John Wharton told me this week that already this year 53,000 hectares had been put to the plough in the Richmond and Mckinlay shires. This is unprecedented.
For those who might read this, shrug their shoulders and say “so?”, let me explain.
This is brand new agriculture on a large scale in our region. It offers new opportunities for Townsville and will inject renewed vigour into our western hinterland.
The inland plains in the past have only ever supported sheep and cattle. The people who live out here are not farmers, but this is not to say they aren’t savvy to what farming can offer and how it might transform and add value to their grazing enterprises.
There have been pockets of frontier farming out here in the west for more than 20 years. Jeff Reid’s irrigated haymaking enterprise at Hughenden is one and Corbett and Beris Tritton’s cotton, sorghum, mung bean farm at Richmond is another.
They have proved crops can be grown, but until now, farming on the vast, Mitchell grass plains of the northern inland has been, for all intents and purposes, practically non-existent.
Now, it looks as though this is all about to change, quickly and radically. One thing that is driving it, apart from the availability of water from the Flinders River, is interest from experienced crop farmers from southern Queensland and
southern states.
$25m station sale
ONE example of this was the $25 million sale last year of Richmond-based Alister and Jo Mcclymont’s Etta Plains Station 120km north of Julia Creek to the New South Wales-based Findley family from Narrabri.
Much of 28,000ha Etta Plains – which has a 39,500 megalitre water allocation – will be turned over to farming. We should mention as well that large-scale farming is already underway in the Gulf Country between Georgetown and Croydon, but this is a vastly different locale to that of the Mitchell grass plains that straddle the Flinders Highway.
Another plus about the Mitchell grass plains is that there are no trees to pull. The only trees on these plains, mainly, are mesquite, which was brought in as a fodder tree for sheep from Mexico and the southwest United States and prickly acacia, which is native to the Indian subcontinent. It was planted here along bore drains as a shade tree for sheep. Both are now major pests.
And in another major breakthrough, the Richmond Shire Council, 500km west of Townsville, is about to start its own 8000 hectare farming project, irrigated with water harvested from the Flinders River. The water will be gravity fed to farming areas. No pumps will be used. The project will be owned and operated by a company that will pay a dividend to the council.
“It is an opportunity for the Richmond community to own the project. We see it returning an annual net of between $23 million and $70 million a year, depending on markets,” Cr Wharton said. Crops grown will include cotton, mung beans and sorghum. He said application had been made to the State Department of Natural Resources for a water harvesting allocation from the Flinders River.
Cr Wharton said the three-year construction phase of the farming project would create up to 384 jobs, declining to 55 jobs postconstruction. Additional infrastructure works during construction would create 300-plus jobs. He said included in the planning was a cotton gin, a 25,000 head feedlot and a commercial abattoir.
All of these would add value and employment opportunities to the greater Richmond area.
Farmers from New South Wales and southern Queensland are eyeing off what they see as new agricultural opportunities on the untapped, black soil plains of the northwest Queensland. Andrew Dickson from Warren in New South Wales has already planted a trial crop of chickpeas on a Richmond district station. Mr Dickson saw the Richmond district as an opportunity to expand
Jobs to be generated
THE coming together of the dream of a green and watered inland will do much to arrest the population drift away from inland towns. Intensive farming will pave the way for jobs covering all aspects of machinery sales and service, harvesting, water management and transport.
The Port of Townsville will become the export hub for grain and legumes shipped offshore and the city itself will become a major service and supply centre for a northern Australian agricultural explosion happening right at its front door.
The inland cropping project has the support of Townsville’s Senator Susan Mcdonald: “Richmond can play a significant part in food and fibre cropping. With its level, black soil plains, ability to harvest seasonal water and its infrastructure, Richmond is well placed to realise a huge opportunity.
Cr Wharton has provided a vision