Flinders Shire Council has developed the 15 Mile, using local underground water to lure Victorian company Marciano Table Grapes to Hughenden.
Australian-grown grapes are unavailable several months every year. The project aims to exploit Hughenden’s climate fill help fill this key gap in the Australian spring, replacing Californian imports.
Mildura-based Marciano is investing $10 million in developing an initial 60-hectare farm, dam, packing shed, worker accommodation and machinery, with a total of 300 hectares of land potentially available for development.
The first vines were planted in spring 2021, with first harvest in October, November 2022.
Flinders Shire invested $4.5 million in the 15 Mile, with assistance from Queensland’s Department of State Development after the project was declared a coordinated project in August 2018, and was subsequently reviewed and approved by the Queensland Coordinator General.
Some financial assistance was also provided from the state’s Jobs and Regional Growth Fund.
In an interview with the ABC, mayor Jane McNamara noted that it was over a decade from the initial concept to project realisation.
The project will support about 34 full-time equivalent jobs, with up to 150 positions during the three-month annual harvest window.
Flinders Hire Council considers the project a pilot project for the proposed $300 million Hughenden Irrigation Project HIPCo, involving a dam of 60,000 to 80,000 megalitres on the Flinders River.
