This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA: MANAGING WATER


Aerial views: Opposite page: the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant;


This page: The suburb of Gnangara


planning for countries, especially those who have to rely on food imports.


Intensifying and expanding production will help ensure that Western Australia is part of the long-term food solution. This means creating irrigation across the State through: finding water; resolving land tenure issues; and providing export infrastructure. Excerpts from a recent speech delivered by Hon. Davies at the Committee for Economic Development (CEDA) in Australia, a leading independent policy think tank, demonstrate that message:


“The Western Australian government has recently announced


a new programme, Water for Food, a $AUD40million investment into locating, proving up and licensing access to water for agriculture. In addition, the Department of Water is working closely with the Departments of Agriculture, Regional Development and Lands to package up land and technical advice to promote to private investors. This has already occurred in Western Australia’s North West, with the Ord River irrigation expansion where Chinese investment of up to $AUD700million aims to double the irrigated farmland from its current area to 27,000 hectares.


One of our greatest opportunities is to create new food production centres in the under-developed


Rangelands, stock grazing plains where 452 pastoral leases cover nearly 87 million hectares of 34.4 per cent of the State. This is a new frontier for irrigation, as many of these pastoral leases overlie fresh water resources. The Department of Water estimates there could be more than 1000 gigalites of sustainable fresh water in the Kimberley and Pilbara regions in the north-west of Western Australia alone. Western Australian government agencies are working together as part of this project to clear these hurdles with urgency. While Western Australia has identified markets and signed a number of memorandums of understanding to send more beef into China, Indonesia,


Vietnam and other South-East Asian markets, we are supporting the development of more on farm irrigation to mitigate seasonal supply issues.


Importantly, half of all pastoral leases in the Kimberley region are in Aboriginal hands, with many of them strategically placed along the Fitzroy River and above aquifers. Importantly, unlocking water and land, and therefore irrigated agriculture, brings employment and training to Aboriginal people in the region.”


In addition to the Water for Food programme, the government has invested in a number of other exciting initiatives including: an extensive groundwater investigation


The Parliamentarian | 2014: Issue Three | 167


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84