Land holders in north Queensland are facing a tough battle against the Department of Defence over compulsory land acquisition so Singaporean forces can train in the area.

The current training ground would be expanded to meet Australia's military training agreement with Singapore.

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Graziers say the area is prime cattle country and an alternate site should be found further west.

"There's a lot of land up near Pentland that's much lower quality land," lawyer Ian Conrad, who is representing some of the graziers, said.

"It may be further away, but if we're choosing between low quality land and high quality land, that should be taken into account, not just the fact that it's close to Townsville.

"There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding that this is low value land; it's not the case.

"There's a lot of good quality country up there, there's a lot of land up there they are using that the moment.

"Do they really need to take all of that land out of production?"

Bullock country 'very valuable'

Bev Spurdle is a grazier with three properties in the land acquisition area.

"It'd be very sad to lose because they're our bullock depots and bullock country is expensive country to re-buy," Ms Spurdle said.

"It is very valuable because you don't raise females on it, you only raise bullocks and fatten.

"We just don't know where we're going from here, so we're just hoping we're not in it — but I don't think we'll be that lucky."

The Department of Defence is yet to release which properties they are interested in acquiring.

They are writing to affected landowners and lease holders and will be holding individual meetings with them in early December.

Family has grown up on land, fought drought and flood

Robert Hicks has property that shares a 23-kilometre boundary with the current army training area.

He is frustrated with the lack of information and the wait to know if his land will be resumed.

"I feel that this is just totally unfair that they will not tell us what's going on," Mr Hicks said.

"[The land has] been in our family a long time now. We would lose it. It's our fattening block.

"It would be devastating to the likes of the Townsville meatworks; there would be losses of jobs, it would break us up.

"In the time we've been there, we've fought our droughts and we've fought our floods.

"All my family, all my kids, have grown up there. I lost my father there."

International troops have used land in Queensland previously for defence training purposes (file photo). ( ABC Open: Lisa Clarke )

Nothing will happen without 'proper consultation' says Senator

Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald, based in Townsville near the potential acquisition area, confirmed there would be resumptions and said they were needed.

"The acquisition of land is a necessary first stage in the process," Senator Macdonald said.

"The existing training areas can only accommodate a limited number of troops and it is of critical importance that Australian Defence Force training is not unnecessarily disrupted.

"Some landholders will very willingly sell their land, but nothing will happen without proper consultation and, of course, compensation.

"The Australian Defence Forces will have priority use of the facilities, and any land acquired under the agreement will remain in the ownership of the Australian Government."

The Department of Defence was contacted by ABC Rural but the department did not provide more information, interviews or further comment about the land acquisition.