Thompson may be man to get dam project moving
WHEN John Howard was prime minister, he considered that North Queensland had to be developed to provide water and land for agriculture so as to feed South-east Asia and take the load off the Murray-darling river system.
He had the CSIRO investigate the Gulf area of North Queensland but very little has happened since.
It always appears to take years for governments to motivate themselves and unfortunately in that time we had Labor governments in power aided by greenies who do not believe in dams or developing new farms.
However, we now have a proactive Liberal Government in power and plans to start by building the Hells Gates Dam.
The past government moved at a snail’s pace and it has taken three years since the past local Liberal initiated the move.
If we continue to move at this pace it will be years before Howard’s dream becomes a reality.
We now have a new Liberal politician in Herbert. So Phillip Thompson, in conjunction with the local senator, what we want is to move this along at a much greater velocity.
And you look like the bloke to do it. Our overall plans for the Federal Government need to provide a large lump of money for the job.
I have been advised there are 40 possible dam sites on several rivers – such as the Burdekin, Herbert and Haughton – and we should be looking at them.
Pick the main ones – Hells Gates, Upper Herbert Dam and Haughton Dam will give some relief to Ingham and Giru – and start land development from these.
All of these dams should be fitted with hydro generation.
They should be fed by a suitable power system that will be extended as the project expands and connected into the proposed double circuit line between Townsville and Mt Isa.
I believe we need to have a Townsville organisation placed in control of this job and the one that deserves this is Townsville Enterprise as its leader has already proven herself with the Hells Gates project.
However, the project should include a possible route for water to reach into the Warrego River, which would flow into the Darling.
The governments should spend more on a project like this and less in the capital cities.
GARTH HARRIGAN, Aitkenvale.