Burdekin Irrigation Project

IN BRIEF:

The Burdekin Irrigation Project aimed to guide growers towards adopting sustainable, technologically advanced irrigation practices that would improve water quality and maximise industry profitability. Key achievements include:

• Evaluating irrigation systems and collecting baseline data to identify constraints and opportunities for improvement.
• Developing and deploying a range of smart irrigation tools, with over 95 per cent of growers requesting automation technology.
• Establishing demonstration sites to test and showcase optimised irrigation practices, allowing growers to make their own modifications and trials.
• Integrating the collected data into an IrrigWeb platform to enable autonomous record-keeping and water balance analysis.
• Achieving significant water use reductions of 30 per cent on average, with corresponding decreases in runoff, deep drainage, and energy use.
• Engaging over 900 growers and receiving $650,000 in in-kind contributions, demonstrating strong grower interest and participation.
• Contributing to the Lower Burdekin’s Water Quality Improvement Plan by supporting on-farm innovation and providing long-term demonstration sites for future investment.