Thursday, 19 November, 2020
0408 457 496 Phone: 5957 3700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
12460238-NG36-20
A Star News Group Publication
53 Fitzroy Street, Warwick Qld 4370 www.helenharm.com
Trail is a huge success
Christmas shop local guide
What’s in the diary
Garden Time with Beatrice
PAGES 8-9
PAGES 10-13
PAGES 20-21
PAGE 27
United by a love of the game... The Warwick Wolves U17’s celebrated their weekend grand final win in the Toowoomba Football comp - made up of Stanthorpe United and Warwick Wolves they played in Toowoomba after the local comp went into hiatus due to COVID-19. Like the Stanthorpe United Premier League team they travelled away every week - will the two teams continue to play in Toowoomba?
More on page 6, photos in ‘Spin’...
Project progress By Jeremy Sollars The community-owned commercial entity behind the proposed Emu Swamp Dam for Stanthorpe says sales of future water from the dam to primary producers have been completed and that its board is “very comfortable” with how the project is progressing. Granite Belt Water is the ‘proponent’ or driver of Emu Swamp Dam - otherwise known as the Granite Belt Irrigation Project (GBIP) and also says work on other key aspects such as land resumptions for the dam’s pipeline is continuing. But a final decision on the overall commencement of the project is yet to be made, with a potential construction start tentatively drawn in for mid-2021, after an initial projection that construction tenders would be issued in mid-2020 having been revised to February next year.
As the wider Southern Downs and Granite Belt regions continue to respond to the economic and production challenges of ongoing drought a new dam at Emu Swamp on the Severn River south-west of Stanthorpe has been promoted as a major future generator of jobs and water security for the Stanthorpe area. To date the project has been costed at $84 million, with the Federal Government having committed $47m and the Queensland Government $13m, with the remaining $24m in the form of ‘in principle’ private contributions from primary producers on the Granite Belt who would purchases allocations of water and contribute to the cost of construction and ongoing maintenance of the dam and associated pipeline infrastructure. Water from the dam would be transported to those properties via a pipeline network, the fi-
nal route of which is yet to be fully determined. Granite Belt Water chief executive officer Lloyd Taylor this week told the Free Times the company had finished water sales, with close to 50 producers having paid their initial investment contribution of four per cent of the capital construction costs. Mr Taylor said “a couple” of producers who had initially expressed interest in purchasing future water supplies from the dam had since withdrawn but all initial financial contributions had now been received from 48 individual producers, across the horticultural industry. Details of those producers remain confidential, with Mr Taylor saying their contributions had been placed in a trust account, with the current work on the project being funded by an advance payment of $6 million made by the Queensland Government earlier in 2020. Three major hurdles still to be cleared on
Emu Swamp Dam are land resumptions associated with the pipeline route, final environmental approvals, and the involvement in the project by the Southern Downs Regional Council. The pipeline network would transport water potentially both south to the Ballandean area and north as far as Thulimbah and Pozieres and Amiens, including to farmers east of the New England Highway on that northern section of the route. Consulting firm the Minsol Group is currently engaging with landholders who could be affected by land acquisitions for the pipeline, the costs of which would be met by Granite Belt Water which would acquire the land itself. But any such land acquisitions could also be carried out by the Queensland Government under its public infrastructure powers. Continued page 3
SUBSCRIBE to our DIGITAL EDITION - It’s FREE freetimes.com.au/subscribe
12469654-JW46-20
[07] 4681 1289
79-85 Ogilvie Rd Warwick
35a Railway Street, STANTHORPE Q 4380
Granite Belt Insurance Brokers ABN 32 054 247 666 is an Authorised Representative 271148 of Insurance House Pty Ltd ABN 33 006 500 072 AFSL 240954
SPECIAL PRICE Made from Bluescope Australian Steel Full service - Slab, Erection & Councils QBCC1197750 NSW237076c
64 Maryland St, Stanthorpe
Ph: 4681 1000 Servicing Stanthorpe, Warwick, Tenterfield and surrounding districts Email: admin@mwfplumbing.com.au
SMFN70ZZX BATTERIES
Specialising in Commercial, Industrial and Domestic Sheds.
Phone the Office on
07 4661 9835 warwick@rfsteelbuildings.com.au
12460562-NG37-20
12466739-NG43-20
gbib.com.au 12460834-JW37-20
• Home and Contents • Motor Vehicle • Caravan • Boat
WE HAVE YOU COVERED THIS SUMMER WITH A WIDE RANGE OF BBQ’S
12459962-SG36-20
• Commercial Motor Insurance • Business Insurance • Liability Insurance • Rural Insurance • Professional Indemnity Insurance • Personal Insurance including:
07 4667 0263
$155 inc GST Find a large range of Supercharge Batteries in store!! Your Spare Parts Specialists @Bellinghamandco www.bellingham.com.au