The Channel Country, from drought to a one in forty year flood.

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Originally Posted by trog

Who gives a rats , it is an island continent! My state is better than yours , couldn’t give a ****.

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Now Trog, have a bex and a lay down, you will feel better in the morning, old mate.

Another problem related to water. Whose watching the groundwater? The official response, " so far, so good " doesn't fill me with confidence.

Who's watching the water? Experts sound warning on deteriorating groundwater monitoring - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

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Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Quoted from a Bigbjorn post--
I wonder what the residents of the Queensland coastal areas would think when their water disappeared inland leaving them with a trickle. The Snowy River Valley was virtually destroyed by taking the natural flow inland and was only partially returned quite recently.

Huh?? I was talking about Townsville water,, which is a very small part of coastal QLD,, and they wouldnt miss it anyway...

The Snowy scheme is only a tiny part of what would be required to turn the North Queensland rivers inland. The Snowy is a nice little hydro-electric scheme by world standards. We bang on about it because it was a source of national pride and something that had never before been attempted here.

Who cares about the Snowy scheme? Your last sentance is enough of a reason to attempt it,,


Then, when all this water is running down the western rivers what are we going to do with it? Grow millions of tons of irrigated grains to sell into a glutted world market? Millions of tons of sugar? No, already too much of that. Water livestock? No, the water will cost too much to raise cattle and sheep.


No.. all I was after is a tree lined waterway,, but we have to start somewhere,, flowing rivers bring people.
to waste all the Norths water is to waste our greatest resource ...



sugar? really? [bigrolf]

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The "Townsville water" came from a "once in a century event" - probably not enough certainty of supply to justify billions of taxpayers dollars for a few tree-lined waterways [biggrin]

The supposed "waste" is a matter of opinion. To me, this country, and it's (less recent) inhabitants, are uniquely adapted to the climate here - including a hit-and-miss monsoon cycle. Any alteration to the existing inland rivers and/or the water flows will only result in the sort of balls up we've already got with the Murray Darling system.
I have yet to see a single example of mankind doing a better job than nature can do if left alone!

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Originally Posted by donh54

The "Townsville water" came from a "once in a century event" - probably not enough certainty of supply to justify billions of taxpayers dollars for a few tree-lined waterways [biggrin]

The supposed "waste" is a matter of opinion. To me, this country, and it's (less recent) inhabitants, are uniquely adapted to the climate here - including a hit-and-miss monsoon cycle. Any alteration to the existing inland rivers and/or the water flows will only result in the sort of balls up we've already got with the Murray Darling system.
I have yet to see a single example of mankind doing a better job than nature can do if left alone!

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Nature is a benevolent mistress. She has stood aside while man has had his way with the environment, expanding his destructive influence on every part of the globe. All of sudden, the globe has gotten too small, and there is much less " wriggle room " for our destructive ways. I will say again, no one is saying we must change the direction of northern rivers, just harvest the excess water from monsoon cycles.

Global warming will fix it in a few thousand years as the melting ice caps cause the oceans to rise, the water backs up further and further into the rivers and flows inland. The inland sea will spread and Australia will shrink. Darwin residents should be buying canoes. Nature will win in the end and humans will end up huddled on the high ground, facing extinction. Just stick around a thousand years and see I'm right.
So, that's a cheery Sunday night thought for our dreams.

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Global warming will fix it in a few thousand years as the melting ice caps cause the oceans to rise, the water backs up further and further into the rivers and flows inland. The inland sea will spread and Australia will shrink. Darwin residents should be buying canoes. Nature will win in the end and humans will end up huddled on the high ground, facing extinction. Just stick around a thousand years and see I'm right.
So, that's a cheery Sunday night thought for our dreams.

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Won't have to wait that long. One flash, and we'll all be ash , care of our friendly nuclear neighbours. Cockroaches will inherit the earth, [ damn those NSWelshmen, ] Gus Gould will be President of what remains, now there is a thought to make you **** the bed.

I will be sitting in Maleny, 450 metres above seas level, watching the ocean creep along the drainage channels towards the new Sunshine Coast University Hospital.

Courier Mail, page 6, Tuesday March 5.

Sir Leo Hielscher and Sir Frank Moore have offered an updated Bradfield scheme to open up vast areas of Qld to high value food and fibre production, while creating renewable hydroelectric power and saving the Great Barrier Reef from pollution. " and it would ensure the Murray- Darling system never ran dry, boosting the Nations food security. " The impact of last months catastrophic Qld floods would have been lessened had the infrastructure been in place. The plan has the backing of senior fed. gov. figures, would cost $ 15 Billion , and take 20 years.

Who said it couldn't be done?

Kansai airport Japan took 20 years planning 3years to build and cost 20 billion US dollars. So think 15 billion for a bit of a ditch a few dams and tunnels and pipes seem like good value[bighmmm] The only thing that bothers me ,Bob Nutter thinks its a good idea[bigsad] and our useless government would let the contract to anybody other than Australian contractors:bat:AM

This topic interests me
Before we dig a ditch or slap a few pipes together
We need a water source

Monsoon rain is by its definition fickle

First job is to build a dam


Oh that’s right we aren’t allowed to build dams anymore ...

The trouble is not economics or will or electoral cycle it is the very inverse of why in places like the three rivers dam happens but will never happen here... the environmental palaver required to flood a valley is insummountable.

Hell if building a dam was easy a small dam (by the scale required for the above hairbrained scheme) would have been built on the Laura River in the same location that was dammed In the 70s and the Laura valley would have ten times the agriculture currently.

Even in the tropics just having water isn’t enough - you need water security before investing $ in crops....

Won’t ever happen