The Lockyer Valley and Somerset Water Security Scheme is progressing well with concept design work setting the stage for a more reliable long-term water supply for one of Australia’s most important food-producing regions.
The Lockyer Valley and Somerset Water Security Scheme (LVSWSS) is taking its next major step toward securing the region’s long-term water future, as it advances into the Optimisation Assessment Phase (OAP) stage. This milestone follows the completion of the Viability Assessment Report (VAR), which has laid the groundwork for transforming early plans into detailed designs that will guide the project as it progresses to a ‘shovel-ready’ stage.
IPS Senior Project Engineer Molaí Madden said moving into this phase marked an important step forward.
“The Viability Assessment Report gave us a solid foundation for the next stage of this exciting project. From there, we successfully onboarded multiple technical consultants to assist with the progression of the OAP, which is a key step toward more detailed technical development,” she said.
IPS provides Owners’ Engineering and project management expertise to guide the LVSWSS through this complex phase. “A big part of my role is keeping all the moving parts working together, from coordinating consultants and managing design deliverables to ensuring our technical, environmental, and strategic goals stay on track,” Molaí said.
“For this project, we typically have between two and five IPS specialists involved at any one time, working across areas such as design management, procurement strategy, stakeholder engagement and program leadership.”
Recently, the team addressed the challenge of aligning diverse stakeholder priorities for the Concept Design phase.
“There were many different inputs and operational needs, which created some uncertainty about the direction,” Molaí said. “We held targeted workshops to address concerns, clarify expectations and agree on what success looks like. That process refined the design brief and gave us a clear direction moving forward.”
The LVSWSS team is maintaining an innovation register to capture new ideas and is exploring peer reviews of emerging technologies. IPS is working closely with specialist consultants and stakeholders including the Department of Local Government, Water and Volunteers, Lockyer Valley Regional Council and Somerset Regional Council to ensure new initiatives and ideas can be shared for the betterment of this project.
“The community engagement has been positive,” Molaí said. “There’s been strong interest from the agricultural sector in how the scheme will help support long-term water security in the region.”
The Lockyer Valley and Somerset region, known as Australia’s ‘salad bowl’, produces nearly 30 per cent of Queensland’s horticultural crops and most of the nation’s winter vegetables. But its heavy reliance on groundwater has made farming vulnerable to droughts and unpredictable water supplies.
The LVSWSS aims to change this by providing a more reliable, sustainable water source, including recycled water, which will bring big benefits like increased crop production, more local jobs and new investment opportunities – all of which increase year-round food security to South East Queensland.
“What drives me in this project is making sure what we design isn’t just technically sound, but sustainable and truly fit for purpose,” Molaí said. “It’s about creating something that delivers real, long-term value to the community. This project has the potential to transform water reliability here, support sustainable farming and improve environmental resilience. It’s really exciting to see the momentum building as we now move into the concept design stages.”
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