One of Queensland’s largest vegetable farming and production companies, Kalfresh, has received a joint $80 million investment from the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) and Wollemi Capital to build Australia’s first integrated food and energy precinct.
The $291 million Scenic Rim Agricultural Industrial Precinct (SRAIP) project aims to establish an agri-industrial precinct and bioenergy facility on a 40-hectare site at Kalbar, southwest of Brisbane. Declared a coordinated project in 2019, the SRAIP was approved in May 2024 by the Queensland government's Office of the Coordinator-General.
Queensland’s coordinator-general, Gerard Coggan, said the success of the SRAIP project will set a new benchmark for rural development across Queensland.
“The SRAIP is a significant step forward for regional Queensland,” said Coggan.
“By establishing an agri-industrial hub that provides the region’s growers with greater flexibility and integrates renewable energy solutions, we’re opening doors for local farmers to diversify and expand their operations. This will drive investment and create sustainable job opportunities across the region.
“Through close collaboration with all stakeholders, we’ve ensured a streamlined process to bring this innovative precinct to life, delivering substantial benefits for regional Queensland,” he said.
QIC CEO, Kylie Rampa, said the investment would significantly support the advancement of Queensland’s energy sector.
“In collaboration with Wollemi Capital, QIC is proud to support Kalfresh to introduce a scalable bioenergy platform, which demonstrates how agriculture and energy can work hand in hand,” said Rampa.
“This initiative will strengthen energy security while creating new value from what was once considered waste, and farmers are central to driving these practical solutions.”
Site development
The SRAIP development plan stated the project will expand and transform the current operations of the site into a series of food and beverage processing facilities, warehouses, and resource recovery operations to process waste and create energy.
The precinct will include a biogas anaerobic digestion facility, which will convert agricultural and food waste into enough energy to power up to 31,000 homes a year, while also producing natural bio-fertilisers to reduce reliance on imported synthetic alternatives and support local agriculture.
Anaerobic digestion is a natural process where microbes break down organic matter to produce gas, allowing Kalfresh to produce renewable gas to fuel vehicles and power homes and industry with farm waste inputs, and use the by-product, digestate, as a natural fertiliser on farm.
The technology has been operating in Europe and America for decades and is already powering homes and industry, including fleets of trucks for Amazon and UPS, and public buses in the UK, Germany, Paris, LA and New York. This will be the first scaled deployment of the system in an Australian farming region, designed for Queensland conditions.
“Byproducts from processing the organic agricultural and food waste in the SRAIP digester are energy, gas and soil nutrients. The SRAIP represents a unique opportunity to create a circular economy in a discrete location creating synergies amongst complementary agricultural industry producers,” stated the development plan.
Local and national impact
The precinct is also expected to deliver over 1000 jobs, including 641 during construction and 475 ongoing operational roles.
Kalfresh co-owner and CEO, Richard Gorman, said Kalbar is on track to become the first community in Queensland connected to reliable 24/7 baseload green energy, all generated from local food waste and crops grown in nearby paddocks.
“The Kalbar Bioenergy Plant will be the first of its kind in Australia, but the model is already tried and tested internationally. This project shows how renewable energy can seamlessly integrate with agriculture to create a sustainable and self-sufficient system – producing food, fertiliser, and energy all from the same local sources,” said Gorman.
“Our food and bioenergy model will bring lasting benefits to the region through new investment in high-value manufacturing, value-adding waste into baseload energy and biofuels, and by creating valuable bio-fertiliser for the next crop.
“We’re proud to be leading this project and we’re excited to be partnering with QIC and Wollemi in a consortium bringing to market a wide range of renewable products, including new baseload generation to the energy market,” he said.
Construction of the paddock-to-energy precinct has now commenced, with the first flow of energy scheduled for mid-2027.
Kalfresh founding director and co-owner, Robert Hinrichsen, said Kalfresh will expand its operations within the Cunningham Highway precinct and will offer 13 serviced lots to third-party food and beverage manufacturers, who will have access to on-site renewable power and circular waste services.
“We’re confident our Kalbar project is just the start for this farm to fuel model,” said Hinrichsen.
“We have a plan to build more food and energy precincts in Queensland. This is a proven energy solution that works now. It’s clean, it’s closed loop, and it puts farmers at the centre of the solution.”
