Dam busters: governments ready to buy land to unlock water
Greg Roberts; 27/8/08
Toorale station in northwestern NSW is expected to be purchased by Canberra in partnership with NSW for an estimated $25 million, in response to mounting pressure on the Rudd Government to respond more quickly to the water crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin. Dams across the Warrego River on the 92,000ha cotton and grazing operation would be removed to boost flows from Queensland to the basin by up to 90 gigalitres a year. Government sources said federal Water Minister Penny Wong was anxious to make some high-profile acquisitions under the National Water Plan, which included $3 billion for allocation purchases, as criticism mounted of the Government’s handling of the water crisis.
See; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24248231-601,00.html;
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/index/0,25201,5013169,00.html
Toorale Station - Size: 91,383ha
- Was purchased by Sir Samuel McCaughey in 1880, together with Dunlop Station, where he ran more than 500,000 sheep
- It has been put up for auction on September 11, and is expected to sell for $25 million
- The station, now owned by Clyde Agriculture – itself owned by the British Swire Group – sits on the banks of the Darling and Warrego rivers
- The station has been accused of effectively choking the Warrego River as a result of McCaughey’s construction of a series of dams designed to divert and collect water from the river. The diversions reduce the Warrego flows from 3000 megalitres a day upstream to 600 megalitres a day on the southern boundary
- If the river were allowed to flow naturally, environmental flows could be increased by about 90 gigalitres a year
- The property has about14,000ML in storage
- It had been a large cropping and sheep station; before turning to cotton. It is now focused on growing corn, wheat and sorghum
- A well-known board member of Clyde Agriculture is John Anderson, Australia’s deputy prime minister and leader of the Nationals from July 20, 1999, to July 6, 2005. In 1989, Anderson was elected to the House of Representatives as MP for the rural seat of Gwydir. He remained a member until the 2007 election, when the division was dissolved as an electorate
- A prominent board member of Swire Group is Sir Rod Eddington, who was recently appointed as the inaugural chairman of Infrastructure Australia. He is the former CEO of British Airways, for which he received a knighthood in 2005 for his services to civil aviation. More recently, he was engaged by the Victorian Government to develop options for Melbourne’s east-west rail link.
- Clyde Agriculture managing director John McKillop admits he would be disappointed “to see a beautiful property like Toorale put into non-productive use, but if that is what the Australian community wants, that is the best use for it”
Tags: Australia, Environment, Murray-Darling Basin