The Far North Queensland (FNQ) Water Alliance (led by FNQROC) is driving a strategic and coordinated approach to overcoming the unique challenges that regional Local Governments face in delivering sustainable and resilient water and wastewater services.
Through the QWRAP-funded development of the FNQ Regional Water Capability Plan, the Alliance has identified 11 key initiatives designed to lift regional capability and maturity. These regional collaborative initiatives span areas such as infrastructure standardisation, data sharing, funding advocacy, workforce development, and asset management.
One key initiative, “Building Maturity in Asset Management and Planning Across FNQ,” has gained renewed focus, with valuable insights emerging from the experience of Douglas Shire Council in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Jasper.
In December 2023, TC Jasper brought catastrophic rainfall and landslides to the Douglas region, recording 3.2 metres of rain in a single week.
The disaster caused major disruptions to water supply systems, with landslides severely impacting raw water intakes and turbidity levels overwhelming existing treatment plant capacities. Pipe breaks, valve and network failures, flooding, and infrastructure damage led to extensive service interruptions.
Douglas Shire’s proactive and comprehensive response, led by their Water and Wastewater team under Ben Baillie, has resulted in a series of recovery and resilience-building actions, including:
- Interconnector pipelines to improve network redundancy and service continuity.
- Plant upgrades and membrane replacements to enhance treatment capacity.
- Leak detection surveys identifying over 1 ML per day of water loss in Council infrastructure.
- Network asset maintenance activities including improved valve operation and control.
- Installation of emergency reserve tanks and mobile potable water tanks to improve emergency water access.
- Community-wide education programs promoting water conservation and reduced consumption (with a recorded 12% demand reduction in key service areas).
These recovery efforts are not only rebuilding physical infrastructure but are also strengthening long-term planning and operational resilience – critical attributes for effective asset management and the delivery of essential services to the community.
Regional Relevance: Scaling Local Lessons to FNQ-Wide Strategy
Douglas Shire’s experience underscores the interconnectedness of disaster preparedness, operational resilience, and strategic asset management.
It also highlights the critical importance of funding, as Douglas Shire Council progress funding opportunities to undertake a condition assessment program that will provide essential intelligence for renewal investment planning.
By using available asset management information, and tools developed by the industry (like the qldwater asset criticality tool) Council is prioritising asset investment to those assets which represent the most critical risk to service. Through the FNQ QWRAP group these lessons at Douglas will be built into the regional efforts to lift maturity in asset management as part of the delivery of the regional Capability Plan.
By sharing this initiative through the FNQ QWRAP group, Douglas Shire is contributing to a growing body of regional knowledge that informs and advances Initiative #10. The detailed asset data, funding approach, and resilience strategies offer a replicable model for other Councils facing similar challenges across FNQ, especially those grappling with increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
Furthermore, Douglas’s experience highlights the need to reform how water and wastewater infrastructure is funded, particularly in disaster-prone areas. This work strengthens the case for Initiative #8: Driving Change in Water and Wastewater Grant Funding, by showing the real-world service delivery impacts of underinvestment in water assets.
Supporting Regional Cooperation and Capability Growth
The FNQ Water Alliance Technical Committee continues to play a pivotal role in facilitating strategic planning, aligning Council efforts, and promoting regional solutions. As part of this collective, Douglas Shire’s contributions offer not just a recovery story, but a blueprint for capability growth—helping shift FNQ from reactive disaster recovery to proactive, data-informed infrastructure planning and service resilience.
Through shared challenges come shared solutions—and Douglas Shire’s journey stands as a powerful example of how local experience can shape regional transformation in water service delivery across Far North Queensland.
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