The Hon. Robbie Katter, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader and Traeger MP, Media Release, 12 February 2025
The visionary Bradfield Scheme – which by design diverts excess floodwaters from the upper Tully, Herbert and Burdekin river systems – could have ameliorated the devastating 2025 North Queensland floods had it been built, Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter has said.
Mr Katter said the failure of successive state and federal governments over the last century to realise the scheme, as well as its more modern, revised version, had an immeasurable impact on the North’s economy as well as its broader ability to weather-proof the region.
“We are now seeing the devastating effects of the lack of foresight and vision in Queensland politics over recent decades,” he said.
“The Bradfield Scheme was all about drought-proofing the north and central western areas of Queensland and turning the region into a food bowl, however the scheme indirectly can mitigate flooding risks as well by pulling all that water delivered by monsoonal weather away from the coast and its river catchments.
“Now we will never know if Ingham could have been prevented from ruin, or if we could have maintained our road network access at Macrossan along the Burdekin by holding back some of that water.
“Along the Burdekin River alone, we have been seeing enough water to fill the Sydney Harbour three times flowing out to sea each day.
“Until the revised Bradfield Scheme is built, we in the North will remain at Mother Nature’s mercy in terms of both flood and drought.”
Mr Katter said the recent flooding disaster had only strengthened the pressure on the new Crisafulli LNP Government to re-ignite their support for the revised Bradfield, which the LNP pledged to build whilst in Opposition in 2020.
The revised version, created by titans of Queensland industry Sir Leo Hielscher and Sir Frank Moore, culminates in the building of Hells Gates Dam at a height of at least 395m above sea level.
A dam of that size would hold double the amount of the current Burdekin Falls Dam and would allow water to be sent west via channels to the “plains of promise” at Pentland, where there is a break in the Great Dividing Range, and further west.
Mr Katter said the KAP will work to ensure the Crisafulli LNP Government, as well as the party that forms the new Commonwealth Government following the upcoming federal election, prioritise the building of the revised Bradfield Scheme as a mediator of the flood and drought disasters that continue to plague Queensland.
