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

Ok,, so the floodwaters from Townsville have reached Birdsville,,

all by themselves, down natural waterways.

and soon all those waterways will be in flower.





Why cant we just release excess FNQ water storage into the same waterway system? or even allocate unreqired storage to that natural waterway?

remember gravity did all the work, and Mother Nature in FNQ will provide as much rain as needed to keep this going for a long time,,

..

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Ok,, so the floodwaters from Townsville have reached Birdsville,,

all by themselves, down natural waterways.

and soon all those waterways will be in flower.





Why cant we just release excess FNQ water storage into the same waterway system? or even allocate unreqired storage to that natural waterway?

remember gravity did all the work, and Mother Nature in FNQ will provide as much rain as needed to keep this going for a long time,,

A very good question, one that has been asked many times. And one which Canberra has put in the too hard basket, many times.

The water in the Diamantina did not come from Townsville. There is a divide in the way. It is water that fell far enough west and south to be in the Diamantina catchment. (see Southwest Queensland Rivers Rainfall and River Conditions) Certainly it came from the same weather event. Notably, none of this fell far enough south to provide any water to the Balonne-Condamine catchment that supplies the Darling.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

The water in the Diamantina did not come from Townsville. There is a divide in the way. It is water that fell far enough west and south to be in the Diamantina catchment. (see Southwest Queensland Rivers Rainfall and River Conditions) Certainly it came from the same weather event. Notably, none of this fell far enough south to provide any water to the Balonne-Condamine catchment that supplies the Darling.

The water that flowed to the gulf, in a 70 km wide river, did indeed come from the Townsville rains. Some method of diverting that flow south surely couldn't be too hard to work out.

JD is correct. There is a divide, ranges, that separate the rain that falls on the north side to form the rivers that flow to the gulf from the rain that falls on the south side of the divide to form the the inland river system,. The Barcoo, Thomson, Western, Diamantina, Farrar's Creek and their channels and creeks that eventually reach Cooper's Creek and Lake Eyre. The rain was all one event over an area about three times the size of Victoria not just Townsville. Townsville got all the media attention because it is the only major population centre in about half of Australia other than Darwin.

The idea of piping the wet seasons rains from the coastal rivers over and/or through the Great Dividing Range will remain a pipe dream until there is developed a cheap or free way of providing the enormous amount of electricity required to pump the enormous quantity of water needed to fill the western rivers system. The water has to be piped and pumped to a height where it will gravity feed to the western system. A good idea in the bar but not in reality.

Are the graziers going to pay enough for this water to repay the construction and running costs and pay a dividend to the shareholders? I think not. Farmers and Graziers have always been reluctant to pay for anything. The old Country Party policy of agrarian socialism was strong on government paying for all infrastructure and farmers reaping the profits.

Just to add to that, I would point out that as well as the divide Brian is talking about there is an area of internal drainage, with Lake Galilee and Lake Buchanan, which means that unless you are planning to fill up that whole area (the inhabitants might have some views on that!) you would need to have a second set of pumps to get the water over the second divide.

And the water would have to be in pipes all, or most of the way, to manage evaporation - to make a point, the Thompson at Longreach floods reasonably often, and mostly has a good flow, but due to evaporation, rarely reaches Lake Eyre. Further, the second reason that it would need to be mostly in pipes, is that there is too little elevation change for the water to flow at sufficient speed to move the sort of volumes needed. And the pipes would need to be big, maybe 100 - 1000 times the cross section area of the pipes use for the Wentworth - Broken Hill pipeline just opened - it looked to be about 40cm.

How on Earth did the Snowy River scheme ever get off the ground with that negativity? Canberra has a lot to answer for. We have gone from a Nation of doers, to a Nation of hand wringers. From a Nation of Have a go, to how much money will it put in my pocket. No thought of the National good, just what's in for me. Well, you get the drift. Better we let China take over. They would get it done.

IT COULDN'T BE DONE
by
Edgar A Guest (1881-1959)

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But she with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't", but she would be one
Who wouldn't say so till she tried. So she buckled right in with a trace of a grin
On her face. If she worried she hid it.
She started to sing as she tackled the thing,
That couldn't be done and she did it. Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it"
But she took off her coat and she took of her hat,
And the first thing we knew she'd begun it.With a lift of her chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
She started to sing as she tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and she did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin
Just take off your coat and go to it.
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "cannot be done," and you'll do it.