We have achieved so much.
In September 2024, the Bowen Pipeline Company officially secured the entire 182 kilometres of trunk and branch lines, with the exception of 40 metres under an open channel on the Water Board easement, and we have support from both the Whitsunday Regional Council and Burdekin Shire Council to use their road reserves.
The Department has provided a letter detailing the next step. Note, they still require us to wait for what is effectively at least another year before we know whether we will be permitted to formally lodge our application (Sunwater’s report on water supply to green hydrogen to the State Development Area is now due towards the end of the year, after the election).
The economic loss for each year’s delay is $300 million, and the loss of 1,200 years of employment in North Queensland (1,200 jobs x 1 year), income the regions will never receive. Go figure.
Project approval prior to the caretaker mode of the upcoming State election would mean that we would start construction in September 2025 and be operational in 2027.
The Bowen Pipeline Company has completed an Integrated Sustainability Strategy - Targeting Net Zero – implementation of:
Federal Government’s Climate Change Act;
State carbon reduction targets; and
Indigenous Prosperity
Resulting in:
Traditional Owner project equity;
Net Zero electricity use (65 hectares of solar produces enough electricity to supply the pipeline for a 24 hour cycle);
Use of on-site HDPE pipe extrusion technology to save 5,000,000 km in B double truck movements, 11,000 pipe welds and 36,000 hours of welding (overall significant carbon reductions in transportation and installation);
Supply to the Abbot Point Green Energy Export Hub for the production of ammonia (fertilisers for local, national and international markets), green hydrogen (export and domestic), bioenergy (turning food waste into power, gas and bio fertilisers) and other potential tertiary users.
