61 BURDEKIN DRY TROPICS NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN 2016-2026
practices mentioned in Part B – Land, managing stocking rates to maintain groundcover, remediating gully erosion, adjusting crop applications, minimizing nitrogen surplus and modifying irrigation practices. Adopting these best management practices has reduced the load of nutrients and sediments in runoff as well as improved land condition and farm productivity. The up-take of sustainable practices will increase as people become confident with new information and farming methods. However investment and support is required to maintain the momentum to achieve the long-term results.
Future water demands
There are a number of proposals for the expansion of agriculture and additional water supply infrastructure for our region, however, their viability depends on financial support, economic success of industry, environmental impacts and, most importantly, whether the allocable water exists( Gallant, et al., 2014).
The Australian Government’ s Our North, Our Future: White Paper on Developing Northern Australia( 2015) identified the Burdekin River as one of nine basins across Northern Australia that has potential for increased irrigated agricultural production. It identified that there was capacity to improve agricultural output in the Burdekin River basin“ subject to overriding concerns of sediment and reef water quality management”( Australian Government, 2015b). CSIRO identified that raising the Burdekin Falls Dam wall could increase capacity by 590,000 megalitres to a total capacity of 2,445,000 megalitres. Other potential dam sites were also noted at Hells Gate and Mount Foxton, however, construction at these sites would reduce inflows to the Burdekin Falls Dam.
Raising the Burdekin Falls Dam wall and constructing new in-stream and off-stream storages throughout the catchment could support an additional 1000 km ² of irrigated agriculture( Gallant, et al., 2014),( Commonwealth of Australia, 2014) – 100 km ² in the Lower Burdekin, about 500 km ² along the Elliot Main Channel to Bowen and potentially more than 400 km ² along the Bowen River, upper Burdekin River and possibly Belyando – Suttor subcatchments( Gallant, et al., 2014).
However the Burdekin WQIP has highlighted that an expansion of irrigated agriculture could potentially lead to a detrimental increase in nitrogen loads and herbicides and undo achievements made since Reef Plan 2009 initiatives. Any decision to expand water supply infrastructure and agriculture would need to consider:
• that captured water must be allocable and not already earmarked for other users and the environment;
• direct impacts on the land cleared for agriculture and inundated environments; and
• downstream impacts on the receiving waters and environments, including the internationally listed Ramsar wetland and the World Heritagelisted GBR.
Restoring Burdekin Coastal Ecosystems for the Great Barrier Reef and Ramsar. NQ Dry Tropics, Lower Burdekin Water and Burdekin Shire Council are working together to strategically restore ecological function to priority coastal ecosystems( wetlands and waterways) connected to the Great Barrier Reef in the Lower Burdekin, including the Bowling Green Bay Ramsar wetlands. The project has modernised a key waterway culvert to improve the efficiency and control of water delivery to irrigators, and reduce unnecessary supplementary flows. This project clearly identified that improved management of the movement of water, resulted in multiple benefits for irrigators and the receiving natural environments( NQ Dry Tropics, 2015b).
WATER