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The Forum > Article Comments > Rivers need more than cowboy heroes > Comments

Rivers need more than cowboy heroes : Comments

By Mark McGovern, published 2/3/2007

Like some Western hero, the Commonwealth is now seen riding into town to impose good order over the Murray-Darling.

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Talking about water, the Murray Darling controversy is nothing new. There was much talk before the Great Murray River Project of feeding northern tropical waters into the top end of the Darling.

Peter Beattie, premier of Queensland brought it up again just recently, with the same answer from critics that it
could be done, but would cost too bloody much?

Well now, if it can be done, surely now is the time with Costello just blowing his bags that he now has over one trillion bucks in his Future Fund.

A major problem above the headlands of the Darling in upper Queensland seems to be sandy soils which cannot carry the flow of water even with massive channelling.

It has been so interesting to note the work of the huge Japanese mechanical borer used under the precincts of southern Perth as part of the almost completed railway line to Mandurah.

Just ask Peter for a half dozen Jap borers to drill through that Queensland high country and it could be Bob's your Uncle to overflow the Murray, and maybe we could do something similar in WA from the Ord and Fitzroy, especially as water after a major downpour flows naturally from well north of Wiluna all the way to the Moore River just north of Perth.
Posted by bushbred, Saturday, 3 March 2007 12:14:53 PM
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It's always good to read stuff showing concern for our rivers. But does anyone realize that there are 14 river systems under threat in NSW from mining operations which the NSW Government, in its desperate search for cash and the millions it gets from coal royalties, is approving hand over fist in spite of expert warnings ? Rivers are being cracked, depleted and polluted in the process and remediation is not a permanent solution (grouting cracks with cement is not going to last through the next earth tremor).

Neither major party nor the press want to take up this issue, though rivers even in Sydney's drinking water catchment are being/have recently been cracked and drained and polluted. The so-called Catchment Management Authorities are powerless to help, and refuse even to print photos of cracked river beds in their newsletters. Academics won't help either - lest they lose their lucrative consultancies or sponsorships ( e.g. try asking the "BHP Chair of Environmental Sciences" at Wollongong Uni for a bit of help and advice on how to protect rivers from mining !! )
Posted by kang, Saturday, 3 March 2007 1:28:11 PM
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The long term consequences transcend State vs Federal power, the point is that the water is commodified as a commercial asset.

As such, it has to be perfectly clear that the water belongs to the land, it therefore belongs to the Australian people. It must never be influenced by private interests other than farmers who are already stakeholders.

This is serious if the States perpetually disagree all the time over this, but if there is Federal intervention, we need a safety clause to this to guarentee that water is not commodified and used for further private comercial interests.
Posted by saintfletcher, Saturday, 3 March 2007 4:08:10 PM
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There is much comment on the need to harvest the water that flows during the Northern wet season. I should mention that even here in Cairns, we have water restrictions and we do have bad years (2002 springs to mind.)
The problem with harvesting water in the far North is that it is hard to store the stuff. Generally the land is flat and it is hard to build large storage areas. Those areas that do have rain catchment valleys that could be dammed also have valuable agricultural area's (The Atherton Tablelands and North Tropical Coast) that are Australia's tropical fruit bowl. Also it is not feasible to destroy World Heritage Rainforest if the intention is to build storage dams. Australia would be rightly damned if we tried that stunt.
And lastly a litre of water weighs one kilogram. Pumping megalitres of water is equivalent to pushing millions of kilo's of any other substance. A lot of effort is involved.
Posted by seaweed, Saturday, 3 March 2007 10:25:30 PM
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Rojo, there is plenty of irrigated wheat and lots of sheep and cattle are fattened on irrigated pasture - water is more essential to the production of the "basics" than you may think.

Billie, I know plenty of farmers that have had to pay those types of sums for water entitlements that are non-existent. That's doubly hard when without the water you cant produce anything to pay the bill. Assistance to farmers has come in the form of interest-rate subsidies and the dole (barely enough to live on) - little yet to help with the cost of water that cant be had.

The problem is that there are no easy answers, and plenty more people are going to be hurt before anything is achieved.

The best solution - put a bunch of retired farmers on the Board to make the hard decisions. You would be hard pressed to find a fairer bunch of people, that are little influenced by profit, and that have a good understanding of the interaction of the environment with its dependants. Most farmers, especially the older generation, are prepared to make hard decisions for the greater good - just the sort of people that we want making decisions that are going to effect us all long into the future.
Posted by Country Gal, Sunday, 4 March 2007 9:14:39 PM
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Shonga, I'm with you on questioning why. A meeting of the coalition was held north of Bundaberg recently. No body was invited, yet a large number of outside supportive business people turned up to discuss damning water here. Gladstone is not far from here, and it has been touted as a possible site for a nuclear site. Excuse my suspicions. Managing rivers? Managing for what? Is this the forerunner of absolute control over rivers? I have a doubt or two.
arcticdog.
Posted by arcticdog, Monday, 5 March 2007 1:17:57 PM
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