A Queensland town that has gone without significant rain for nearly two years is planning for the possible evacuation of its entire population.
But the mayor of the inland community of Cloncurry, near Mt Isa, said evacuating the town’s 3000 residents would be an “absolute last resort”.
Mayor Andrew Daniels said the emergency plan was being developed as part of the town’s Drought Disaster Management Plan.
Cr Daniels said the council had decided to enact level 6 water restrictions from next Monday, which would ban residents using sprinklers and limit the use of hoses.
‘‘It’s a very, very dire time for the bush,’’ he said.
A tropical low over the Gulf of Carpentaria delivered rain to neighbouring Mt Isa on Monday, but the system bypassed Cloncurry.
The town’s main water supply, Chinaman Creek Dam, is only at 15 per cent capacity.
Cr Daniels said the town would have drinking water until at least the end of June, when it planned to divert water from a second dam it has access to, Lake Julius.
The newly-constructed $3 million weir at Chinaman Creek Dam was also ready and waiting to divert water from the Cloncurry River, he said.
Cr Daniels said the council had been forced to make plans for evacuating the town should water supplies ever run dry.
But he said it was highly unlikely an evacuation would be warranted in the near future.
‘‘Our final option is evacuation, it’s the final straw,’’ he said.
‘‘We’ve obviously got a lot of options up our sleeve before that happens.
‘‘But people are getting desperate.’’
Queensland’s drought has now spread across 69 per cent of the state, with Bulloo Shire in the south-west corner added to the growing list of regions officially drought declared last week.
Cr Daniels said he would prefer cutting water to the region’s mines, in favour of preserving supplies for the community.
‘‘If the government was fair dinkum and didn’t want the communities to suffer they would turn off the water to the mines,’’ he said.
‘‘But they won’t do that because they get about $250 million in royalties a year out of this area and … I reckon their plan would be to evacuate before they turn the mining water off.’’
Cr Daniels said he understood how important the mining industry was to the community.
‘‘But I think every mining company will have to do what we’re having to do and make emergency plans to sustain their businesses,’’ he said.
