To David Kempton MP

I would like to follow up to a letter I wrote regarding the long-term water security for the Douglas Shire and other needs of the shire which was kindly edited and passed on to Warren Entsch, Bob Katter and David Crisafulli’s department several months ago through the local ARAMA president in Port Douglas Bryce Tozer of Cayman Villas, with both Warren Entsch and Bob Katter excited for the prospect of what could be achieved. I’m sure David Crisafulli was too busy with the election at the time.

My suggestion that I again put forward is a pipeline from Quaid dam (Mitchel River Dam) 15km south of Mt Molloy, approximately 35km from the Douglas Shire with one possible route following the transmission line easement east of Wetherby Road to the upper Cassowary valley just south of Mossman or other possible routes directly to Port Douglas. 

This would bring the pipeline out in the Douglas Shire where it could be connected to the existing system. A new filtration treatment plant could be built allowing this new system to act as an independent complete supply for the Douglas Shire.

I believe the Douglas Shire is in a critical time in its history, the likely loss of the Sugar Cane industry and Mossman Mill. The severe damage to the roads and infrastructure north of the Daintree River and south of Port Douglas and the tablelands. A Lack of Confidence in development such as the possible sale of the Port Douglas Marina and its redevelopment to a great extent rely on the guaranteed supply of water.

With Continuous level 4 water restrictions throughout the Douglas Shire. Tourism has been suffering greatly with many resorts over Easter 2024 having only 20 per cent occupancy. This will lead to lack of confidence in this area including the Reef tour operators, The cost of Agricultural land will fall dramatically as limited viability for alternate crops makes the land reduced from high yield to low yield land.

I understand as the new State Member for Cook, you are able to examine afresh the needs of Nth Qld which have been sorely neglected by the previous Government. 

Having worked in Agriculture in two different Irrigation areas I understand the need for water, not only for Port Douglas to develop but to drastically effect the ability to plant crops throughout the season regardless of the climate. 

My proposal was to not only lay a pipe for the potable water needs of the Shire but to make it large enough to carry enough un-allocated water from Quaid dam to a coastal irrigation scheme to eventually supply irrigation water to supplement new cropping possibilities with the water from the existing Mossman system to help supplement the scheme.

The Federal and previous State governments have allocated approximately $6 million each to expand the creek inflow in the Mossman Gorge as the only supply for most of the Douglas Shire.

For the Shire to expand a guaranteed water supply is needed, not a seasonal creek that is badly affected by turbidity in the wet season and almost runs dry in the dry season. Unfortunately the Douglas Shire Council appears not to have the foresight, vision or money to look beyond a creek for its water supply or an alternative to the cane industry.

I believe water is a state responsibility and therefore should be taken out of the hands of the local council who have continued to struggle to deal with the critical nature of the situation the Shire finds itself in. 

The cane farmers will struggle to transition to another crop without available water all year leaving approximately 22,000 hectares of agricultural land unproductive.

Working in the Riverina area in the early ‘90s my company became one of the biggest companies in regional NSW, with a vast diversity of produce from chicken broiler production and eggs to wine, wheat, olives, rice etc and most through the availability of irrigation, yet I understood the challenges associated with dry area production, that drastically reduced the crops to seed crops such as wheat, canola and livestock.

Without irrigation water the possibilities for the Douglas Shire farmers to produce a viable alternative to Sugar Cane are limited. Yet with irrigation, rice could be grown with two cycles a year, fruit crops established, hemp etc. Water allocations could be purchased as occurs in other irrigation areas and a hydro-electric scheme could be established at the lower site as the pipeline falls approx 400m from Julatten providing sustainable electricity generation to help run the scheme.

A pipeline, like so many others in the state that have been run to shires and towns that have struggled or are struggling with similar water issues appears only to occur to the South with Far Nth Qld largely ignored or forgotten.

A pipeline would provide an assurance into the future for investment in the Douglas Shire. The shire needs a vision as it cannot grow or plan for the future on the uncertainty of a creek based system if the Shire is plunged into a drought as has happened in the past or another severe rain event.

The Government constantly throwing millions at council’s desperately inadequate water supply won’t fill the creek in the dry season or stop the debris and turbidity in the wet and again the Shire will shut down as it has over the last few months since Jasper.

I worked for many years in the irrigation and dry cropping areas of the Riverina, and in the tablelands at Dimbulah in tea tree industry. I understand the challenges are different on the coast, and as with other new schemes an Agricultural department should be established in the area to be pivotal in helping the failing Sugar Cane industry, reliant on the Mossman Mill restructure and develop new agricultural alternatives and infrastructure needed to process and market these products for the future.

The primary long term need of any community is clean drinkable water and with unused water allocations of somewhere over 120,000M/L sitting in Mitchel River Dam and with a need for approximately 5500M/L a year to supply all of the Douglas Shire’s drinking needs for now and the future, and an allocated irrigation system established, to me this would be a much wiser use of the State’s money.

The previous Labour Government refused to help in the development in the Far North, instead allocating money to what I believe are of no great benefit to North Qld. Throwing millions at the Wangetti Trail is one example where the terrain north of Wangetti is so difficult it would require very expensive and destructive works to construct a viable track “road” through pristine forest on very steep terrain when an alternative route already exists from Port Douglas to Wangetti.

The road system from the coast to the tablelands is also in dire straits with only four access points from Innisfail in the south to Mossman in the north and with three of these roads cut off and washed away during Cyclone Jasper.  It makes most people north of Cairns shake their heads in disgust that a 5km road already exists yet successive governments refuse to consider it because of political pressure from the Greens and others who seem to be only interested in destroying Far North Qld. 

Quaid’s Road from Wangetti to the Mulligan Highway was still usable after Cyclone Jasper, but has locked gates at either end during times when accidents and landslides blocked the Cook Highway and sits there slowly disintegrating while the people of Far North Queensland sit in their cars unable to get home. I have sat for several hours in traffic jams literally outside the locked gates with some trying to find routes around them.

Again, a proper use of money can be achieved if Quaid Road was established as a state highway and upgraded giving a fifth much needed route to the tablelands especially with the issues effecting the bridge over the Barron River and give the Douglas Shire a much needed second access route via Mount Molloy and Julatten.

A lane up the side could be added for bikes and walkers to access the existing black mountain road allowing push bikes and walkers a safe cooler road access to either Port Douglas via the Bump Track to the north or Kuranda via Black Mountain Road to the south, boosting train and cable car tourism to Kuranda, also providing more tourism for Port Douglas with established camping sites and magnificent scenery already accessible, instead ploughing another route along the hot and humid coast area where most times of the year I believe few will use. 

There are other opportunities for tourism in the Shire such as utilising the existing rail corridor and establishing a light rail between Port Douglas and Mossman which would greatly benefit the shire and increase diversity of accommodation in Mossman allowing backpackers and caravan parks to be established away from Port Douglas with safe reliable transport between these towns.

Rail tourism could be established with dining cars travelling the established routes to near Mossman Gorge and Rocky Point, the envy of every other town or city such as Cairns that desperately needs this infrastructure but has no established easement - we have both the easement and a rail line but if in a fire sale of the mill occurs and the rail is torn up it will never be re-laid, another lost opportunity.

Port Douglas was built by those with vision, without it Douglas Shire will always be a constant burden on the State. 

Yours faithfully

Trevor Frizelle