Cloncurry mayor says there are opportunities for a second ‘food bowl’ in the region that are environmentally viable.
Cloncurry mayor Andrew Daniels says an irrigation sector is needed for the region which could also be used to service the town’s new beef abattoir, the ABC reported.
"[We'd need] probably less than two-and-a-half per cent of the water that flows past Cloncurry," he said.
"There's something like 124,000 megalitres on average goes down the Cloncurry River.
"If we can get 250 or 300 megalitre storages – three or four of them – to get pilot projects up and running, I think that will be sufficient. It won't have any environmental impact."
Daniels says irrigation would help to ensure cattle properties were sustainable.
"We need to have some sort of security around feed. Surely the writing is on the wall with that disastrous decision about the live export, we are really starting to see the consequences and if we don't try to help ourselves there'll be a lot more people hitting the wall."
The new beef abattoir at Cloncurry is part of a bigger project to create and sustain agricultural development in the Richmond and Flinders shires.
Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister John McVeigh said a local abattoir would lower the cost of supply chains for graziers.