| Fitzroy Basin Food
and Fibre FBF&F, are an incorporated irrigator representative body based
in Emerald, CQ, that represents the interests of over 400 individual irrigators
in seven sub-catchments. These include the Nogoa River, the Comet River, the Mackenzie
River, the Callide area, the Dawson Valley, the upper Fitzroy and Barrage irrigation
area, and the Isaacs/Connors Rivers. Each of these catchments has an individual
representative member that sits on our management committee and these are administered
by an Executive. Current issues for us include pricing, (particularly in
the Fitzroy Barrage area), property rights, the impending resource operation plans
(ROP's), water harvesting caps, compensation and local management. In Emerald
for example, we have recently experienced drastic staff losses (not cuts - resignations)
in our Sun Water office which is having a direct impact upon our irrigators' confidence
in their delivery systems. Such events may have us moving further toward local
management of our regulated systems to ensure effective water delivery. We
adopt some policy from other areas including the Queensland Irrigators' Council
(QIC) and Border Rivers Food & Fibre group, and write our own where it is
necessary. We are also a member of QIC and are funded by Cotton Australia, both
of whom we partcipate with on a regular basis. These parties more than any other
have had a direct impact on our policy positions, direction and survival. Currently,
the office is administered part-time by Adam Loch and the Chairman is Mr. Ced
Loch. The two deputy chairs are Mr. Paul Brooks and Mr. Rob Hutchinson and the
Treasurer is Mr. Dougal Millar. We have a membership that is growing each year
and the involvement of more that twenty persons in our management committee, a
figure that exceeds any other to my knowledge. In the days of declining interest
in getting invloved in these types of bodies, ours is a dynamic group for obvious
reasons - water is life! Importantly, our group has a very good relationship
with both the regional offices of DNRM, Sun Water and DPI all of which help to
ensure that we are involved, informed and important. This is extremely crucial
to the whole Qld water reform proccess, and what sets us apart from our NSW counterparts
at times. Our contacts are Fx: (07) 4982 1545, Mb: 0412 178 162 and email:
adamloch@maxspeed.net.au. | 
