The federal government signalled its intention to run a big-spending, big infrastructure election campaign to win over regional Queensland when it announced $5.4 billion for the new Hells Gates dam in north Queensland this week.
It came just days after the government committed more than $500 million towards constructing the Urannah Dam in central Queensland.
"We need to build more dams in Australia. Building dams makes our economy stronger by supporting our agricultural industries to realise their true potential," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
"This is going to be music to the ears of regional Australians, particular [in] regional Queensland, which is a must-win state for the Coalition," political commentator and Griffith University academic Paul Williams said.
"This also, I think, is a sop to the very conservative fringe-right voters in Queensland, who may be feeling like they need to leave the LNP," he said.
Dr Williams said One Nation, Bob Katter, Clive Palmer and the Liberal Democrats have been calling for more infrastructure in regional Queensland, particularly dams.
New farming hubs
Proponents of the 2,100-gigalitre dam in the Upper Burdekin catchment said it would be the largest in Queensland, and open 60, 000 hectares to irrigation.
Charters Towers Mayor Frank Beveridge was confident there would be water to fill the dam.
"The Hells Gates dam will take half a day in flood to fill, and the river floods for about three months, so the water is there.
"Right now, it is with mining and grazing, but this will be another huge contributor to our economy, and it will certainly make us drought-proof," he said.
But while dams might win votes in regional Queensland, not everyone was convinced they were a water security solution.
"It's a bit of a fallacy that [dams] will provide long-term water security because if there's water in the dam, it costs money to build [so] you need to sell that water and use it," said Fran Sheldon, a researcher with the Australian Rivers Institute.
"Environments go into drying times as we saw in the Northern Murray-Darling Basin in the millennium drought and the more recent drought, and that water gets used, and the dams get emptied," Professor Sheldon said.
Hanging water out to dry
Professor Sheldon said the catchment – or river – that the dam was built on lost a lot of its natural flow regime.
"The water is held back in times when it would normally flood," she said.
"You can see that through the lens of some of the recent floods, some people might be saying, 'That's a good thing, we don't want a flood'.
She said it was also vital for near-shore areas to have fresh water going out into the ocean.
"There's a lot of nutrients delivered, which actually helps fuel productivity in the ocean as well."
Professor Sheldon said dams, by holding all that water, actually increased the surface area and evaporation.
"Sometimes we say it's just like hanging your water out to dry, you build a dam for water security, but you actually increase the amount of water that's lost in the process just through evaporation," she said.
Unknown territory
In the Lower Burdekin, those concerns were shared by Burdekin Mayor Lyn McLaughlin, who said she was worried about the impact of new dams on her community's children and grandchildren into the future.
"This is new territory. That's never been done on a river that I'm aware of – three dams on a major water source," she said.
"It's not just about our viability. It's about what it does to the Great Barrier Reef and the flow of water out into our oceans."
Not same view with city voters
Dr Williams warned dams could become a wedging issue in the lead up to the federal election.
He said dams were very well supported among conservatives but could become a lightning rod for opposition for the Greens in an inner suburban seat.
"So, while Scott Morrison is going to win kudos regional Queensland, he's not going to win too much support in downtown Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne," Professor Williams said.
