KAP wants projected Big Rocks Weir water used for hay production

The leader of the Charters Towers Regional Council was responding to comments by federal MP Bob Katter that the weir's construction could increase local cattle production to a point that a meatworks will again be viable in the city.

Mr Katter believes that the extra 10,000 megalitres of water captured by the weir should be used to fatten 60,000 cattle for sale in the period between September and February each year.

"In recent decades, nine North Queensland meatworks closed including Australia's biggest, Cape River at Pentland, west of Charters Towers," he said.

"Charters Towers stock and station agent Matthew Geaney said to me, 'you can't operate a $60m plant for only eight months of the year when your competitors operate for 12 months'.

"I've commenced discussions with Charters Towers councillors and stakeholders as I believe the weir and its water needs to serve Charters Towers, rather than it being turned into a milking cow for the Queensland government.

"We need secondary industry, like a meatworks, to grow a town the size of Charters Towers."

RELATED: Big Rocks Weir gets green light

Cr Beveridge said the council had land set aside for a meatworks in its town plan, and that it plus locations at Hughenden, Julia Creek and Cloncurry had all been discussed a few years ago when the economic climate was more conducive.

"At the moment, the climate for a meatworks is very difficult," he said.

"I'm sure there'll be a change in pricing in the future though.

"The Big Rocks Weir will help with all industries in Charters Towers - that's why we started heavily promoting it in 2012."

Cr Beveridge said that macadamia or other seed crop growers could make eight times the profit with the same area and the same water that was used to grow one kilogram of sugar cane, and it made sense for coastal people susceptible to cyclones to diversify inland.

Cr Beveridge said he would welcome the chance to speak with Kennedy MP Bob Katter about the opportunities that the construction of the Big Rocks Weir would bring for a meatworks and other industry in the region.

Mr Katter has called for the various state government assessments for the weir to be sped up so that construction can begin as soon as possible.

He listed a number of places where jobs had been lost in the community since the demise of the Bjelke-Petersen government, in which he was a minister, including 200 direct and indirect jobs at the mental health hospital, more than 200 jobs in the railways department, 800 jobs in four major mining operations, and a further 400 direct and indirect jobs with the closure of the Cape River meatworks at Pentland.

Cr Beveridge said council had not yet had discussions with Mr Katter but he would welcome that.

"The Charters Towers Regional Council, as the proponent of the weir, will continue to push for ownership of the water to stay in the hands of ratepayers," he said.

"The weir would make a lot of things possible that currently aren't.

"Hay is grown there now - that's why the weir has made sense for so long; none of this is experimental."

The Penna brothers have been farming alongside the Burdekin River, where the new weir will be built, since the 1990s and are currently growing hay and potatoes.

Dominic Penna said the Big Rocks Weir was critical for surety and security of water supply.

"The Burdekin River slows down towards the end of the year, so the weir will be able to hold and release water for farmers and the people of Charters Towers," Mr Penna said.

"Our country can't go ahead without water. Water is where it all starts, so governments need to build something somewhere."

Across the other side of the Burdekin River, cattleman Blair Knuth said the weir was a wonderful opportunity to give year-round water security to Charters Towers.

"What this does is helps businesses choose Charters Towers as a base," he said.

"They may not need a great deal of the water, but they do need a 100 per cent guarantee of the supply in order to set up shop."

Mr Knuth said the other component of the project was to give water security toward the end of the year to existing cropping and hay production areas.

"The northern cattle production system has a protein drought for at least six months of the year," he said.

"In the old days, we'd only sell cattle during the protein-rich months.

"We now have a 365-day selling cycle for cattle, which means they need to be able to be turned off at any time and this vital infrastructure allows us to overcome the protein deficiency."

In July the $60 million Big Rocks Weir project inched a step closer to construction with the release of the terms of reference for the project's environmental impact statement.

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