Cheryl perhaps you did not notice that when our Brisbane greens were worried about their own water supply, we did not hear a single squeak out of them against the Mary river dam. Fortunately most are now realising that the greens are just a bad joke, on it's way to history.

It was the locals who had to fight the thing, & a few others who think that if the people of Brisbane want more water, they should build some dams in Brisbane, not Maryborough.

Diotima, just why should anyone anywhere, be it the cape or east Kimberley have any more say in where dams should go than any one else?

Now I happen to agree with you that it should be the locals who make decisions on what they want, but that should hold for everyone, the people of Maryborough just as much as those of the Kimberley.

However while the people of the Kimberley or Maryborough, are all too happy to hold out their hands for community money, they should loose the right for exclusive self determination. If they want a share of community wealth, than they have to be prepared to accept community decisions on things like dams.

As with all boosters of the never-ending "growth" of both the economy and the human population there is no consideration of the fact that such a situation is impossible on a finite planet.

Our present-time "civilization" is an absurd soap opera, a lunatic asylum created by TV. That TV created absurd soap opera actually controls the destiny and the potential experience of the total world of human beings, although some so called libertarians might like to pretend that they are "free". Never mind that every aspect of everyones body, mind,emotions and actions has been programmed by the system.

That absurd titty-tainment soap opera is, in its root disposition, totally indifferent to the well-being of both human life and of Earthkind altogether, including of course Black Ducks.

Black ducks are dapper ducks (although the person who named them would have to be daffy, coz they ain’t anywhere near black!!)

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=pacific+black+duck&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=599&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=dkCm2cgworG7GM:&imgrefurl=http://curiouserr.blogspot.com/&docid=WdDMgF4HrfBnpM&imgurl=http://www.charliesbirdblog.com/~charlie/SYD26feb06/blackduck.jpg&w=600&h=408&ei=nopSUMeND-GPiAetuoHABg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=802&vpy=85&dur=2856&hovh=185&hovw=272&tx=121&ty=104&sig=104114398348957169127&page=1&tbnh=109&tbnw=152&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0,i:101

Pink-eared ducks on the other hand are completely daffy-looking!

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=pink-eared+duck&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=599&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=MW4DruAm9HgnnM:&imgrefurl=http://www.avianweb.com/pinkearedduck.html&docid=bx2MxaY6q2LvgM&imgurl=http://www.avianweb.com/images/birds/Ducks/PinkearedDuck2.jpg&w=461&h=326&ei=VYtSUNDlGbGhiAfRxYDQAg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=418&sig=104114398348957169127&page=1&tbnh=119&tbnw=159&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0,i:84&tx=72&ty=58

Um…. where was I? Oh yeah, dams in northern Australia.

Yes, the Argyle Dam is on the best site in northern Australia and is still marginal. As for damming the rivers in the flat lands around the Gulf, or turning the coastal rivers inland, or piping water across the ranges or tunnelling through them, just forget it completely. It is too daffy to waste a second thought on!!

An excellent example why the Liberal Democratic Party will never be a force in a government in Australia. As has been pointed already if it was so great up there why has Argyle been a runaway success. The greens might flawed because of their attachment to ideals, but you have no attachment to reality which is even worst.

Just what the country needs, another Ord river project, private profit at public expense.

A thoughtful, well argued and logical article!
Northern rainfall is measured in metres, and myriad small upland dams, rather than just a few very large ones, would not only force the landscape to store far more water, but see a lot less of it rushing out to sea, along with trillions of tons of alluvium, which routinely destroys both the reef systems and sea grass habitat!
[Water is almost the most inert substance, and storing it behind small dams mitigates against further erosion almost better than anything else?]
Sea grass absorbs three times the carbon of all the forest of the world! A fact that is routinely ignored by tree hugging eco-fascists?
Moreover many modest weirs of just two or three metres, and not less than thirty metres wide, would each power around thirty homes.
And if one included locks, they could turn many waterways into bulk transport, lowest energy using, highways or landing strips for float/amphibious planes.
Northern water could be transported as far south as northern SA, by the simple expediency of injecting/gravity fed surplus water, into the Great Artesian Basin? Just 100 metres of fall, translating into 150PSI?
Climate change scenarios and a warmer wetter world, see more rain falling on our northern climes rather than less.
[Recent record floods, just a harbinger of far worse to come?]
Moreover, the widespread planting of tropical food, fruit and nut trees, would mitigate against both heat and climate change.
On a hot northern wet season day, just about the coolest place is under the mango tree.
And there are any number of understory crops that can be also grown, like say coffee or cocoa/pumpkins or sweet potatoes etc/etc?
Rhrosty.