Access to water is dividing communities in southern Queensland, where cotton growers are being encouraged to sell back their water allocations. But some say the whole community will suffer if the region's cotton industry is put in jeopardy.
Cotton growers in southern Queensland are getting ready to harvest the crop that dominates agriculture in the region.
But under the Murray Darling Basin Plan the area around St George is set to be hit with the hardest water reductions in in the state.
Many farmers have agreed to sell their water rights back, to bring the river system back to health.
But there are plenty who say that if they sell, the whole community will go with them.
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Chad Prescott is one of them.
He left California in the seventies to become an irrigator on the plains of the Balonne River.
In the Condamine Balonne the federal government is seeking 100,000 megalitres of water back from growers.
It's spending over $3 billion buying water entitlements like those that Chad's 1,600 hectares of cotton rely on.
“That's good for irrigators but that's very bad for the economy,” Chad says as we tour his extensive property.
“That's 100,000 megaltires of water that can produce a 100,000 bales of cotton at $500 a bail.”
Balonne Shire mayor Donna Stewart says St George, and its smaller neighbour Dirrinbandi, are communities built on agriculture that is reliant on irrigation.
But she does have sympathy for the farmers choosing to sell.
“They require some cash flow, after 10 years of drought their financial institutions are putting the pressure on them.”
She says the community is conscious of the environment, and says she's also looking at what a reduced reliance on irrigation might mean.
“It's a big ask, a very big ask. But the farmers here have been willing right from the start to give it a go,” she says.
But she doesn't want to see the towns wiped off the map.
Frank Deshon, an irrigator who represents smaller growers via the SMART Rivers group, also feels that without agriculture, which is reliant on the rivers, there'd barely be a community to speak of.
And he says the government has rushed the data which is seeing this particular part of the northern Murray Darling Basin hit hard in terms of reductions.
“If there's credible science and the data says we will then we'll address those issues,” Mr Deshon tells me.
He says he wants more solid numbers on exactly what is needed to address environmental concerns, like those surrounding the Culgoa Floodplain National Park downstream.
By June last year only 28 gigalitres of the planned 100 per-year for the region had been agreed.
With the mammoth Chinese-owned Cubbie Station refusing to comment on whether it is preparing to sell its water rights, the rest -- plus a regional share of another 143 gigalitres -- may need to be made up from the mid-sized producers that Frank represents via the SMART Rivers group.
“We'll never take [the river] for granted 'cos that's the nature of the land we live in,” Mr Deshon says.
“It's all on, or it's all off.”
But he too is not selling his allocation before the plan, and the science behind it, is revisited.
The Basin Authority says it will keep consulting on the plan, which is a work in progress.
It's planning a revision for 2015. But it may have to change tact in this part of the country.
