Plans to build Queensland’s first new dam in more than a decade – the Emu Swamp dam in the Granite Belt – have been thrown into limbo by a construction cost blowout, Guardian Australia has learned.
The 12,000 megalitre dam on the Severn River was initially slated to cost $84m, with most of the funding provided by the federal government ($47m) and Queensland government ($13.6m). The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has been a longstanding supporter.
