IT MIGHT not be able to turn on the rain, but the Australian Government says it is pouring money into living with drought.
And Toowoomba stands to be the beneficiary of some of that largesse.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud announced $20 million for the so-called eight Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs on Wednesday, “building on” the $66 million commitment to the Hubs through the Future Drought Fund.
The minister said the Hubs would also expand their remit into fisheries and aquaculture and make trialling new technologies and practices “a high priority”.
“The Hubs will always be a shopfront for farmers to access innovative technologies and practices that enable them to be more prepared and resilient to drought,” the minister said.
“The Hubs already provide an important physical platform for stakeholders from across the agricultural innovation system to come together and translate research and knowledge to make real impact on the ground.”
“Now they can extend their plans beyond drought preparedness and bring additional stakeholders from the broader agricultural innovation system into that process.
The minister said his government would be “working with the Hubs over the coming months” to “determine how they can expand to support the delivery of the priorities”.
Earlier this year the Federal Government announced Toowoomba would be on the front line of what it billed as a “new era in drought resilience research and innovation”.
In April, the minister announced the location of the eight “Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs” across Australia with the University of Southern Queensland being the “hub lead” for Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales.
The government said it would invest $8 million in the USQ-led hub over four years, with more than $11 million contribution from hub members.
The hub is to be headquartered in Toowoomba and have “nodes in Stanthorpe, Roma, Longreach, Lismore and Narrabri”.
The other hubs included the Southern NSW Hub, led by Charles Sturt University at Wagga Wagga and the Tropical North Queensland Hub, led by James Cook University in Cairns. Dookie, Hobart, Roseworthy and Darwin were also named as hubs.
Late last month the CSIRO announced it was buying 77 hectares of “good Lockyer Valley soil” to help “progress work reducing the impacts of drought”.
