Proposed project methods for the Flinders and Gilbert agricultural resource assessment

The Northern Australia Ministerial Forum has a comprehensive plan for the sustainable development of northern Australia, which is being implemented through the Northern Australia Sustainable Futures program. A key component of the program is a strategy to develop the beef industry in northern Australia. A second component is the North Queensland Irrigated Agriculture Strategy (NQIAS), designed to progress the development of water resources in north-west Queensland to unlock valuable opportunities for new and existing agricultural industries. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is conducting one component of the NQIAS, the Flinders and Gilbert Agricultural Resource Assessment (the Assessment). The Assessment will provide a comprehensive and integrated evaluation of the feasibility, economic viability and sustainability of water resource development in northern Australia. The focus will be on the catchments of the Flinders and Gilbert rivers in north-west Queensland, but techniques and approaches will be developed that could potentially be applied elsewhere across northern Australia. The Assessment does not seek to advocate irrigation development. The Assessment will identify resources that could be deployed in support of irrigation enterprises, and the scale of the opportunity that might exist. The Assessment seeks to lower barriers to investment in the Assessment area by addressing many of the questions that potential investors have about production systems and methods, yield expectations and benchmarks, and potential profitability and reliability. This paper provides an outline of this significant project and the integration of proposed methods.