THE MAIDEN SPEECH FROM 2021:
Welcome – Thank you to all of you for making the time to be here tonight. Lets start by acknowledging the presence of the Member for Mirani, Stephen Andrew and other esteemed guests. 😊 Very briefly, don’t expect me to be an orator, I am not, so allow me to read my notes and then we shall jump into it. Background – 12 months ago we held our first meeting chaired by Ste
phen Andrew to establish how great the need for our region’s water is. So many people raised the issue that they had attempted to get access or to get allocations and always the red tape. Even the larger farming bodies have made attempts and gotten very little if any progress into the vortex that is, obtaining water. It was suggested we go away and obtain as much info as possible and I apologise, due to family health commitments I was unable to hold up my end of the deal. My dad is on the mend now, so I am back and ready to push harder than ever WITH your support. The region is running out of water and we NEED to be sustainable. We are graziers, farmers, Hobby farmers, horticulturalists, equestrian establishments and potential aquaculturists even. We have SO much potential in our community but we are limited by lack of water. Chris and I own and operate Southlands Grazing. Southlands’ story is the same region wide, in what, our council ambitiously call "The Fitzroy Agricultural Corridor". We survived the last 3 years of drought by extensive sales of livestock in a poor market. We now have 1/2 of the stock & are unable to restock in the current market high. WATER is identified as the single defining & brutally limiting factor of our whole community. We have some good farming or fattening & backgrounding land and it is all but useless due to lack of water availability. The mighty Fitzroy River flows not 7km distant. This project will provide economic, environmental and social resilience by increasing profitability and sustainability in the agricultural sector & farming landscapes. There are many enterprises of varying sizes in our community who would benefit. There is little underground water, very few good bores, many bores ran dry in 2019. January 2020 few dams had water left. There is little recognition credited to our community & diversity of our enterprises, which contribute directly to the local economy of the Rockhampton region. A local success story has been Lee’s Dragon Fruits who have river water and are flourishing. We have assessed Southlands need and discovered that we stand to triple our enterprise production with access to reliable water. At full capacity (fully improved) we expect to turn off in excess of 92,000Kg of unfinished livestock entering the local trading market. This increases serviceability to the agricultural sales sector. Every sale generates commission, transport & government levy's plus GST expenses to our enterprise. This results in income at local & government levels. Each and every farm’s success generates a flow on effect for the community. THIS is all unicorns and rainbows until we get reliable water.
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The purpose of this meeting is about forming a community association and then an incorporation. An incorporation is the ONLY way the government or even our council will take us seriously. On advice by professionals the only way forward is a community incorporation. A focus group who are dedicated to rattling the cages of the powers that be. Of promoting our cause and getting the results we all need. Wether it be funding arranged by council or grants we apply for ourselves, this is the next step in our progression. We need commitment on all sides. To incorporate we need an interim management committee in order to deal with the setting up. After incorporation it has been suggested we apply to council to have them officially request at Federal Government level for a Business Case and Water Distribution Study to be completed. Currently Advance Rockhampton know of approximately 10,000 MEGS of demand across South Yaamba, Ridgelands and Alton Downs areas. We are all about obtaining funding for water infrastructure to make water available to our community. Thank you for bearing with me, now I’d like to hand over to our chair to organise the formal part of our evening, THE NAMING and THE ELECTION, please stay in your seats you are important in this.
