Why give a dam about 2m cop-out

There is widespread support for raising the Burdekin Falls Dam wall another 14.6m, but the government has opted for an election sugar rush instead

ve seen some acts of vandalism in my time, but really, to my mind, never intentionally by a state government.

Six months out from a state election and the Miles government announces it’s starting preliminary work on the 2m Burdekin Falls Dam extension. Smash-andgrab electioneering. A sugar hit for a 30second “rush”. You could also call it vandalism.

There is widespread support for raising the dam another 14.6m, but it seems that only within the ranks of government is there support for a cop-out 2m.

It has been stated ad nauseam in the Bully for 20 years that the dam was designed to have an extra 14.6m added to its height. So set in cement was this vision for the future that the Bjelke-Petersen government back in 1981-82 bought and paid for the extra land that would one day be inundated.

All land around the dam to a level 17m above the spillway mark was resumed. The money for the land changed hands more than 40 years ago.

Taxpayers look set to never see a return on that investment.

Engineer Tony Manning and his team from the North Queensland Water Task Force are behind a drive to knock the 2m addition on the head and to go for the full 14.6m.

The experts tell us that if the vandalism goes ahead and only 2m is added, that’s it for the wall, finito, because as far as engineering goes, it can’t be added to ever again.

At full capacity now the dam holds 1,860,000ML (one million litres = one megalitre).

An additional 2m will only add another 500,000ML, allowing it to expand from its present capacity to a total of 2,360,000ML.

If the extra 14.6m is added, the dam will hold well in excess of 8,600,000ML, a whopping increase of 6,740,000ML.

With the potential direct and indirect benefits that would flow to Townsville via a 14.6m addition to the existing wall, it’s amazing but, sadly not surprising, the city’s three state members are mute on the subject of the dam wall going to its full maximum height.

Sugar hit.

Election.

Where are the politicians fighting for Townsville and for North Queensland?

They talk a big game when it comes to lowhanging fruit like crime, roads and health, but are MIA when something complicated like water supply and dams are mentioned.

Tony Manning’s figures show that adding an additional 14.6m would quadruple current capacity, making it the equivalent of 17 Sydney Harbours of water, meaning it would hold well in excess of eight million megalitres.

It would be among the world’s top 11 dams in terms of volume and would eclipse all of the 16 Snowy River dams put together.

There is a lot of amazing evidence to support the adding of the additional 14.6m in height to the dam wall, but our state government in an election year is marching off, picks and shovels, over the shoulder to raise the dam 2m.

An act of political and structural vandalism that will only add a pissant 500,000ML to the dam’s capacity.

Going the full 14.6m adds an additional 6,740,000ML to the existing 1,860,000ML. An 8,600,000ML dam.

Now, that’s a dam for the centuries.

The state government is giving us a fish pond when it could give us an ocean.

Premier Steven Miles