Mount Morgan residents welcome new water pipeline after drought
Mount Morgan retiree Christina O'Leary is no stranger to a drought.
The 85-year-old, who's lived in the old goldmining town for most of her life, remembers her father carting buckets of water from the public well to keep her mother's parched garden alive during prolonged periods of dry weather.
"Don't ask me what I did yesterday but I can still see Dad walking down there," she said.
The town of Mount Morgan, 40 kilometres south-west of Rockhampton, had traditionally relied on water from the No 7 Dam and domestic rainwater tanks for its supply.
Long-term resident Christine O'Leary has lived through multiple droughts. (ABC Capricornia: Jacob Gamble)
"I can still remember when I was a little kid … bathing in the [used laundry] water," she said.
Due to a lack of rain, the dam levels dropped in 2021, as low as 10 per cent, and residents were placed on the maximum level-6 water restrictions.
"[The town] was very dry and desolate looking, almost desert-looking," Ms O'Leary said.
The council had to cart water to Mount Morgan from 2021 to 2024, due to a prolonged drought. (ABC Capricornia: Jasmine Hines)
Rockhampton Regional Council resorted to trucking water into town at a cost of $17,000 a day.
The harsh water restrictions were in place for three years, until 2024.
Ms O'Leary said being "conscious" of water use had become a way of life — but residents are hopeful that's now changed.
This week, representatives from all levels of government announced a long-awaited $88 million pipeline project had been completed, bringing treated water from a Rockhampton reservoir.
The pipeline will see the local dam transition to purely recreational use and promises to deliver more reliable supply.
Glen Kelly said the years of drought were tough on Mount Morgan residents. (ABC Capricornia: Jacob Gamble)
"Rocky's bathtub is a lot bigger [than the Mount Morgan No7 Dam]," state member for Mirani Glen Kelly said.
"When you have reliable, safe water, it doesn't just help industry or [the] likes of our hospital or [the] likes of the businesses in Mount Morgan.
"It supports the communities, the people that live in that town."
Mount Morgan residents have campaigned for a permanent water supply for years. (Image: Vanessa Jarrett)
'Water security is everything'
Mount Morgan was once a bustling hub in central Queensland, generating enormous wealth from the goldmine.
The town experienced an exodus after the mine closed in 1990, but a revival operation has sparked hope for future employment prospects.
Resident Kirra Swain has been campaigning for years for the town to have its own water pipeline and said it would deliver more certainty for future residents.
"Along with the pipeline, the mine was always a pipe dream … a lot of locals never thought it would happen," she said.
"The pipeline is a massive, massive bonus to our town and we're so grateful that it's finally come to fruition."
The art gallery manager said much of the town's social and economic livelihood was dependent on the dam.
"We've got our little art gallery … it relies on touris [and] the dam is a massive drawcard for that," she said.
"Water security is everything in a small town like this."
Regional water infrastructure struggles
While Mount Morgan residents welcomed the announcement, other regional towns continue to face repeated water restrictions due to drought and aging infrastructure.
Isaac Regional Council has been forced to issue multiple different warnings and water restrictions to Clermont residents since August, after a run of water infrastructure failures.
Most recently, rainfall and run-off into the Theresa Creek Dam affected the raw water quality and the Clermont Water Treatment Plant had trouble treating and processing the water.
In a notice published on Wednesday, the plant said it was producing treated water again but residents were still asked to conserve water were possible.
Specialist divers had been on site and were undertaking further work on the dam's intake structure.
In Far North Queensland, the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council last month began shutting off water to its communities for 12 hours from 9pm due to "dangerously low" reservoir levels and aging infrastructure.
At the same time, its mayor and councillors lobbied the federal government for more funding to upgrade water infrastructure
The new pipeline was jointly funded by the local council and state and federal governments. (ABC Capricornia: Jacob Gamble)
Queensland Minister for Water Ann Leahy acknowledged that water insecurity was an ongoing issue for regional communities, but said the government was listening to local councils.
"Trying to find people like water engineers for regional communities is always a challenge," she said.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.