Benefits continue to flow from Rookwood Weir

Water Minister Glenn Butcher with Lush Lychees owners, Krystal and Paul Caton.

The economic benefits of the award-winning Rookwood Weir continue to flow with the $568.9 million joint Queensland and Australian government infrastructure project responsible for delivering around 500 full-time agricultural jobs at minimum.

Major investments in irrigated agriculture continue to flourish because of the weir’s construction and its thousands of megalitres of water, which will change the landscape of Central Queensland.

One of the weir’s 25 water customers is Lush Lychees, which will be able to plant 4000 new lychee trees at its South Yaamba property, thanks to the weir water supply.

This will expand the business’s orchard to 9000 trees and allow the team to grow by two extra permanent employees and 30 extra casual picking staff.

Another customer is Rural Funds Management, which has planted 800,000 macadamia trees over 2500 hectares of orchards within the Fitzroy region, west of Rockhampton.

The Queensland Government is committed to ensuring a stable water supply for Central Queenslanders now and into the future.

Through Federal Government funding, it will soon conduct a regional water assessment to review and identify the next generation of projects needed in Central Queensland to unlock economic growth through improved water security.