The tiny town of Larrimah in the Northern Territory outback - known for its missing person case – will soon be surrounded by fields of irrigated farmland after granting a sizeable water licence. The licence allows for a major cotton, hay and melon operations with hopes it could reinvigorate the dwindling town. But not everyone is convinced.
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00:00A tiny town of less than 10, made famous worldwide by a true crime doco, now on the cusp of an agricultural transformation.
00:10If they've got their licence now, that's great. They can now hook into it and get the dust flying.
00:18These fields around Larimer will soon be irrigated farmland. A 10,000 megalitre water licence has been approved,
00:25the biggest in the region, to grow cotton, hay, melons and mangoes.
00:31That takes labour. It takes people arriving. They buy things. They might need accommodation, food, meals.
00:38Up the road in the indigenous community of Jilkmengen, people say current agricultural extraction from the aquifer has been turning their springs green
00:46and they're fearful about a major increase, with 78 residents signing a petition against the new Larimer project.
00:53It's heartbreaking, you know, to know that people up there are controlling our water, you know.
01:01The water that belongs to us. We're the people that live on the land. That's our water. We want it there.
01:09The NT Water Controller says the licence slowly ramps up over seven years, so there will be chances to check the impact on groundwater.
01:17If the trigger groundwater level drops below certain trigger levels, then the proponent has to go back and have a look at their modelling
01:25and, if necessary, obviously move where they're pumping from or change the rate at which they're pumping.
01:34This licence is particularly controversial because of the type of crop being grown, cotton.
01:40The industry and the government have long argued that cotton is low impact
01:44because the vast majority of the territory's crop is not irrigated. It's just grown using rainwater.
01:50The NT Environment Centre says the Larimer licence has exposed the industry's plans to increase its use of groundwater.
01:58Back in Larimer, Steve Baldwin has just put the Pink Panther pub and its croc up for sale.
02:05But he's hopeful the new farm will bring jobs and renewal to the town.
02:10If they're going to base people, ideally they will, maybe they can buy the pub.
02:16The farmer behind the project did not respond to a request for comment.
02:21There are no tailpipe 영상.
02:22That's what we have, because we're trying to get division.
02:24The farmer behind the project will begin with a little bit.
02:27However, the farmer at the time is still getting rid of the field of the country.
02:28The farmer's running at the moment has been a lot of parameters for the country.
02:29The farmer is still going to do so.
02:30To say that there is a lot of batsmen and the farmer will take advantage of the test.
02:31They are going to be a little bit smaller because the farmer has diseased in the middle school.
02:34If the farmer behind the project does not seem to get rid of.
02:35The farmer in lernen is offering to the farmer.
02:36The farmer's running where there is a lot of a little bit bigger than the farmer.
02:37It's some of the farmer, which is the farmer's running.
02:39It is a bit smaller, but if the farmer is large enough.
02:40the farmer's running this summer.