Lockyer Valley farmers will soon reap the benefits from a range of initiatives aimed at maximising water availability, including works on the pump station that diverts water to Clarendon Dam.
Natural Resources Minister, Dr Anthony Lynham, said level recorders would be installed in the Clarendon and Kentville weirs, and works undertaken to improve flows around Redbank Creek and the pump station that feeds water into Clarendon Dam.
“Recorders at the weirs will allow Seqwater to monitor water levels remotely, and release water from dams more quickly to keep these dams topped up for farmers,” Dr Lynham said.
Dr Lynham said the monitors and better management was in response to issues irrigators had raised during development of the revised water plan for the Central Lockyer. The new plan also requires Seqwater to monitor and report the local water scheme’s performance.
Dr Lynham said Seqwater had also recently undertaken maintenance work to improve flows to Redbank Creek, so that farmers can maximise the water they can draw when the creek is flowing.
“Seqwater undertakes regular maintenance but has also undertaken extra work around Redbank Creek and the pump station that diverts water into Clarendon Dam,” Dr Lynham said.
“They have excavated the channel that goes to the pump station to improve the flows into the dam.
“As well, rubbish build up has been cleared from the bed of the diversion channel between Lockyer Creek and Redbank Creek Pump Station to improve flow.’’
Dr Lynham said silt build up in the Lockyer Valley’s 25 weirs was a significant and ongoing challenge.
“Seqwater and my Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy are currently looking for a low or zero cost approach to desilting the weirs,” Dr Lynham said.
“This includes investigating the efficiency of the area’s weirs generally, the overall impacts of siltation and the potential for larger-scale desilting works or de silting priority weirs.”
