Gladstone Area Water Board 2004

The Gladstone Area Water Board (GAWB) owns the Awoonga Dam on the Boyne River together with a network of pipelines, pump stations, reservoirs and treatment plants. It provides treated and raw water to large industrial customers and power stations and the Gladstone City and Calliope Shire Councils.

The Premier and Treasurer declared the supply, distribution and treatment of bulk water by GAWB to be government monopoly business activities and referred their pricing practices in respect of these activities to the Queensland Competition Authority for investigation and monitoring.

In its final report on the GAWB 2000 review, the Authority recommended that a further investigation of pricing practices be undertaken by the Authority as a result of uncertainty of demand and supply issues related to drought management. On 16 April 2004 the Premier and the Treasurer referred GAWB to the Authority for further investigation.

The Authority released an issues paper seeking stakeholder comment on a number of issues including the form of regulation for the next regulatory period, the pricing framework and the implications of changes in demand projections and supply parameters.

The Authority’s Final Report was released in March 2005.