Outback council hopes sorghum crop will reduce pressure on ratepayers

Sorghum grown near Maxwelton is part of Richmond Shire Council's push to create new income streams. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)

An outback Queensland council is growing its own crops to help pay for a more livable community for local ratepayers.

The Richmond Shire Council is anticipating its coffers will soon be boosted by up to $500,000, depending on the profit made by this season's sorghum crop growing on the town common.

Thirteen hundred hectares of grain sorghum was sown by the local council in January on a parcel of state-owned land at Maxwelton, about 100 kilometres east of Julia Creek in north-west Queensland.

Angus Dalgliesh, Tony Rayner and John Wharton inspect a sorghum crop near Maxwelton. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)

The plot in the tiny outback town is being leased to the Richmond Shire Council from the Queensland government.

"If we make half a million dollars out of this and we say to our community: 'Well, we've got some spare cash, let's give everyone in Richmond free child care', I reckon they'll flock to our community."

This is the second year the council has grown a crop to make extra cash.

John Wharton says growing sorghum could help reduce pressure on local ratepayers and support jobs in the region. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)

In 2025, it harvested 1,000 tonnes of chickpeas from the same plot of land.

That netted the Richmond Shire Council a tidy $300,000 profit.

"It was a great start, and we really want to see this industry grow," Cr Wharton said.

Boosting the council's bottom line is not the only driving force behind the burgeoning cropping industry in Queensland's far north-west.

This sorghum crop has been planted on former grazing land. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)

Richmond is struggling with the same issues facing many other outback communities: a small ratepayer base and a huge footprint of land to look after.

The town is home to about 600 people, but the shire council covers an area of more than 26,000 square kilometres.

"My goal is to stop the rates rising in Richmond," Cr Wharton said.

The long-serving mayor, who has been in the job for 28 years, has experienced the highs and lows of life in an outback town built on the back of the beef industry.

Richmond is home to about 600 people, but the shire covers more than 26,000 square kilometres. (ABC Landline: Cameron Lang)

"You know, when I was growing up, there'd be three or four people working on the property," he said.

"Now it's a helicopter and mum and dad go out and draft the cattle, you know? So the jobs are starting to drift away from the cattle indust