Case for massive dam is building

TOWNSVILLE Enterprise is talking up the potential for the development of what could be Queensland’s largest dam on the upper Burdekin River.

The organisation’s CEO, Claudia Brumme-smith, says the Hells Gates dam and irrigation scheme, proposed for a site about 120km north of Charters Towers, will “truly unlock the potential of Northern Australia”.

It would feed about 3.1 million tonnes of exports such as citrus and avocados through the Port of Townsville and Townsville Airport, she said.

“Behind me could be Queensland’s largest dam development,” Ms BrummeSmith said on a tour of the site.

The organisation on Tuesday released an update on a $24m business case funded by the federal government through the North Queensland Water Infrastructure Authority.

The 2100 gigalitre dam would be about one-third larger than the Burdekin Falls Dam.

Townsville Enterprise is project manager for studies including geotechnical field investigations, environmental and social impact assessment, cultural heritage and cost estimation.

The “milestone 7” update says the business case is 70 per cent complete. “(It) continues to track on budget and on schedule for the delivery of the Final Business Case due in April 2022,” the update says.

The business case is also being managed by the state government’s Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water.

A $2.2m feasibility study in 2018 found a $5.35bn project could irrigate up to 50,000ha of land for high value crops and support a pumped storage hydro electricity scheme of up to 850MW.

The 2018 feasibility study describes the scheme as the “opportunity of a lifetime” to develop a large tract of highly viable land, creating more than 5000 jobs and injecting up to $1.1bn annually into the North Queensland economy.

But it also finds it is a “challenging investment proposition”.

Under the Perennial Cropping Scenario of a Cost Benefit Assessment, that study gives it a net present value of $1.5bn, a benefit cost ratio of 1.33 and an internal rate of return of 9.3 per cent.

In the report, the feasibility study project directors acknowledged that it was likely construction of the dam and irrigation network might not occur for the “best part of a decade” given the investigative works which were needed to determine its viability.