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North Burdekin Water Board
The function of the North Burdekin Water Board is to utilise part of the flow in the Burdekin River to replenish the subterranean water supplies in the north part of the Burdekin Delta and to thereby increase the quantity, and improve the quality of the supply available from those sources for irrigation, domestic, stock, industrial and urban purposes. The North Burdekin Water Board oversees an area encompassing 48,530ha. Sugarcane is grown on 25,212ha and there is 800ha of other crops.
The North Burdekin Water Board has been involved in a major project to clear Payards Lagoon of floating vegetation. This followed community demands for cleaner waterways for environmental, ecological, health, fish habitat and aesthetic reasons. Since completion, dissolved oxygen levels have increased dramatically, fish populations are on the increase, birdlife has returned and there has been a dramatic decrease in the mosquito population. The government has undertaken to purchase a weed harvester to be stationed at the Burdekin. Another completed project that the North Burdekin Water Board has been involved in is the Klondyke Lilliesmere Scheme, which successful met the aims of developing a designed irrigation/drainage scheme to massively improve the drainage potential of the systems located through the South Brandon drain, Jap Lagoon, Browns Lagoon, Kanaka drain into the Lilliesmere system. This co-operative effort has provided improved artifical recharge into Browns Lagoon and the Lilliesmere system, with the major recharge benefit occurring in and below Lilliesmere Lagoon with open water supply being made available to the full length of the new channel. The scheme has combined major irrigation and drainage in one easily maintainable system which compliments the natural system and is of benefit to the whole community. COLLABORATION WITH THE LOWER BURDEKIN INITIATIVE The North Burdekin Water Board is involved in the Lower Burdekin Initiative's collaborative effort. The research within the LBI aims to investigate links between groundwater quality and current management practices at the farm and irrigation scheme level. Better understanding of these links, and if need be, development and implementation of improved management practices will have long term economic and environmental benefits to Burdekin Delta farmers, the wider community and other irrigation areas around Australia, especially those reliant on groundwater irrigation supply. CONTACT PO Box 720 |
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