As part of the North Queensland Irrigated Agriculture Strategy (NQIAS) the CSIRO lead the Flinders and Gilbert Agricultural Resource Assessment (FGARA). The Queensland Government and TropWATER (James Cook University). FGARA was a two-year project that evaluated the feasibility, economic viability and sustainability of agricultural development in both the Gilbert and the Flinders catchment. As part of the assessment water capture and storage options were identified and evaluated. The Gilbert and Flinders catchment were chosen due to interest from local stakeholders and that there was past research in both catchments.
The assessment produced an agricultural resource assessment report for each catchment as well as 16 technical reports and 60 publicly available datasets. The datasets provide information on soil characteristics (e.g., composition, pH, organic carbon, permeability) and land suitability for a range of crops (e.g., lucerne, peanut, mango, cotton, grape). The datasets can be downloaded and displayed in GIS softwarer (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS).
Technical reports produced under CSIRO’s FGARA project that are most relevant to evaluating irrigated agriculture in the GRAP include:
- Assessment of surface water storage options in the Flinders and Gilbert catchments. This report assessed the potential of 7 dam locations in the Gilbert catchment (and 15 in the Flinders), including the Green Hills Dam. Although the Green Hills dam was shortlisted it was not without concerns, including that the dam would inundate ‘of concern’ ecosystems and likely impede fish movement. Raising the Kidston Dam wall was also considered. Suitability of offstream storage (i.e., farm dams) was also assessed on a regional scale based on soil data, suggesting that the sandy texture of the soils near possible irrigation areas would limit the use of offstream storage in the Gilbert.
- Land suitability. This report describes the methods used assess the soil characteristics and crop suitability and gives the results in both written and visual form.
- Agricultural productivity in the Flinders and Gilbert catchments. Tabulates the cropping calender of potential crop options.
- Surface water - groundwater connectivity. Summarises previous work in the Gilbert River bedsands, water from which is currently used for small amounts of irrigation along the GRAP.
Resources
- Flinders and Gilbert Agricultural Resource Assessment (FGARA) website
- FGARA technical reports
- FGARA publicly available datasets
On this website: