Camreay Holdings is an innovative company that believes in beneficial reuse recycling.  By making a waste product into an environmentally safe, nutrient rich product the community can benefit from knowing that their footprint is being recycled in the best possible way.

Camreay Holdings Pty Ltd is owned by Graham and Kate Campbell and is in Bundaberg Regional Council Local Government Area situated 10 kilometers south of Bundaberg, Queensland.

Graham has been farming for 40 years and after going through the decline of the sugar industry over the years and having the opportunity to recycle effluent water it was a progression to look at opportunities to utilize other waste products that would be beneficial to farming or agriculture.

Graham and Kate have been recycling effluent water from Thabeban Sewage Treatment plant successfully (and were the first in Queensland to do so commercially) for the past 16 years.  Recycled effluent water has been used successfully on sugar cane increasing productivity and of late Sunflowers and further crops of grain are being planned.

The economic downturn in the Sugar industry had been the driving force in seeking out alternative fertilizer/soil conditioners in the production of sugar cane when Graham & Kate started using biosolids on their farm in lieu of traditional fertilizer.  This proved extremely successful and after winning the contract from the Bundaberg Regional Council to utilize the biosolids from different Sewage Treatment Plants Camreay now land apply biosolids from the Millbank plant and  thermally composts with sugar cane the biosolids from East Sewage Treatment Plant.

Working together with the operators from the treatment plants a high quality of biosolids is produced to effectively condition the soil and as a base for Camreays nutrient rich compost suitable for compost tea, the home gardener and agriculture use.

Camreay Holdings Pty Ltd currently holds an Environmental Management Plan for the farm and a Regulated Waste Transport License for the transportation of biosolids and is under Environmental Regulated Activity legislation.  All aspects of this project have been guided by the New South Wales Environmental Guidelines for Use and Disposal of Biosolids Products.

Graham and Kate both recognize the need to have a good working relationship with all parties of this initiative and are proud to stand with Bundaberg Regional Council in this achievement. 

Bundaberg Regional Council and Camreay Holdings Pty Ltd  won the WIOA (Water Industry Operators Association) 1st prize for Beneficial Reuse of Biosolids at the National Seminar held in Rockhampton in April 2007.  Camreay Holdings are also the recipients of Bundaberg Cane Productivity Innovators Award for the beneficial re-use of biosolids on cane land (1999) and Burnett Shire Council Special Achievements Award for recycling waste water (1994).

Future Plans

With the help of the Burnett Mary Regional Group a plan has been completed by Mark Bayley http://www.wetlandcare.com.au  for an extensive artificial wetlands to "polish" or process the recycled effluent water to improve its quality to better serve the surrounding area and environment.  Camreay Holdings has assigned 10 acres of the farm for this particular project.

In future it is anticipated that Camreay will land apply biosolids on farms for a small application fee to cover costs of applying biosolids and the requirements of EPA for an Environmental Management Plan.   We are currently seeking expressions of interest in this matter.

Updates: 

Through AusIndustry Camreay have recently received benefits from a Research and Development Tax Concession Program.

Bundaberg State High School Year 9 Science Students recently did a tour of the recycling water project.

Graham with Keith Nicolle of Bundaberg Regional Council are to present a paper to the 70th Annual Victorian Water Industry Engineers and Operators Conference  in Bendigo, Victoria in September 2007 as part of an award they received in Rockhampton in May.

Our first crop of Maize has been harvested and was grown successfully without any additional fertilizer on the block that previously had Sunflowers and land application of biosolids. In October/November we suffered an infestion of heliothis on blocks of Stripe Sunflowers - this was a first for us and we were very thankful of advice received from Bugs for Bugs www.bugsforbugs.com.au with their program of Trichogramma (moth egg parasite) which allowed us to treat the heliothis quickly and efficently. Next time we will be using Trichogramma at an earlier stage to prevent such an infestation.

Award:

Camreay Holdings Pty Ltd has recently won 2009 Queensland Rural Sustainable Industries Award presented at the awards night at Southbank Convention Centre held by Department Environment and Resource Management on 12 June 2009.