Everybody talks about growing food crops in the North.
Why not bamboo?
Bamboo has very little nutrition. It's not very edible for birds/insects.
It is said that bamboo will be the wonder material of the 21st century.
Fertilise it with east coast sewerage sludge.

<<Bamboo has very little nutrition. It's not very edible for birds/insects>>

Not so, Radbug.

Bamboo shoots are “ low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Riboflavin and Zinc, and a very good source of Vitamin B6, Potassium, Copper and Manganese.”
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2788/2

And with that in mind, we could grow the bamboo and sell the shoots to the Asian market.We might even find a ready market among our own vegetarians.

Or , (and here’s an even bigger/better prospect for you) we could grow the bamboo and run panda bears on it (a la grazing cattle)
,harvesting them for their fur/hides, and in the process position ourselves as the De Beers of fur traders!

“Hunting and Poaching: Giant pandas and red pandas are poached for their skin, and soft and thick fur, especially by foreigners”
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/endangered-panda-bears.html

A whole irrigation system in the nth of WA, our govt has spent good money on but the uptake is not as expected. Cotton was grown there for sometime.
The Chinese have a big interest in growing food for asia in the area.
The WA farmers are not much interested, rather work in iron ore.

Bamboo is now laminated and widely used as timber. Probably a different variety.

A major problem in the Ord was the Magpie Geese.
They grew fat and in huge numbers on the crops.
As far as I know they never solved that problem.

Australasian Transport Research Forum 2011 Proceedings
28 - 30 September 2011, Adelaide, Australia
Publication website: http://www.patrec.org/atrf.aspx1

Designing Vehicles for Natural Production: Growing a
Velomobile from Bamboo Alexander Vittouris, Mark Richardson
Monash University, Industrial Design Email for correspondence: amvit1@student.monash.edu.au

Abstract
Sustainability in the field of personal mobility is critical in alleviating social and consumption
pressures of mass production processes, which are reliant on steel and petroleum based
resources. This paper explores personal mobility in the urban environment, taking into
account existing production methods and the environmental impact of raw material
consumption. Furthermore, inertia for the uptake of alternative vehicles, specifically bicycles
and Human Powered Vehicles (HPVs) is described, together with the current application of
alternative production techniques to form these vehicles. The ‘Ajiro’ concept has been
achieved through the application of ‘action research’ methodology, whereby active, grown
experimentation and observation of bamboo has influenced the shape of the vehicle. This
has led to a proposal that explores an agrarian approach to mass production with a process
based on plant shape modification, with specific focus on the application of manipulating
grown bamboo sections pre-harvesting to describe the structure of the vehicle, thereby
avoiding energy intensive post-production processing of the material.

Now that is the sort of innovation we need.
To grow vegetable 12 months of the year in the Ord region, they would probably need to be under cover.
Direct flight on a daily base into Asia.
Large water supply, and close to Asia and beyond.

579, Long term are you really serious ?
Flying food anywhere will be the height of foolishness.

Ye gods, we will have trouble moving food by truck !

Av gas will be replaceable by growing algae within 12 months. Restricted use for a start.
50-50 mix , and available to those that have invested in the innovation.
The Chinese will have the push to utilize the ord river scheeme.

I have only read one recent article that explored the possibilities.
To sum it up, it might be possible using continuous production in a
plant with algae in pipes exposed to light. It would need to be artificial light,
of a particular spectrum, I forget which.
It was thought that such a plant would be possible but might have a
very low ERoEI.

As far as biofuels were concerned they were not practical because of
the amount of land needed and the ethics of starving the poor so the
rich could fly.

I cannot remember where I read about it and I could not find it on
the Energy Bulletin but it could be on The Oil Drum.

It does seem to me to be a grasp of straws.
No pun intended.