Urannah project still alive despite funding cut

Daily Mercury, Mackay

Journalist: Duncan Evans

THERE is still hope for the mammoth $2.9bn Urannah project west of Mackay despite a dramatic funding cut in Labor’s first federal budget.

The three-component project, made up of a 940-gigalitre dam on the Broken River, an irrigation precinct around Collinsville and a pumped-hydro scheme, nabbed $483m in the Coalition’s March budget, but Treasurer Jim Chalmers has now redistributed the money.

The LNP’s federal representation across Central and North Queensland has reacted with fury.

Capricornia MP Michelle Landry said she was “lost for words”.

“Labor have well and truly walked away from regional Queensland,” she said. “Urannah is ready to go and will provide untold economic and social benefits for the region.”

Dawson MP Andrew Willcox said he was “devastated”.

“Urannah Dam was the only dam that has been through Infrastructure Australia and has private equity partners ready to go.”

But Bowen River Utilities CEO James Benjamin cautioned on budget night the project was not dead and his company was committed to seeing it through.

“The funding that we had was earlier in the project cycle than needed,” he said.

“It was certainly nice to have but construction for Urannah Dam is not scheduled to commence until 2025.

“So if the funding is not there, it does not mean the project is not proceeding, it means it is back to business as usual.”

Mr Benjamin said though the budget papers seemed to show the money had been cut, there were other buckets of money that could flow into the project, namely the $1.2bn earmarked for the national water grid fund to increase and safeguard farming output with another $1bn for future projects.