the extraordinary high electricity prices that everyone is paying due to the mindless flawed ideology of wasting millions on renewables would certainly be hurting farmers and pensioners. We need a few pollies with a backbone to stand up against and reverse the regressives ideology. We keep feeding coal in records amounts to China and India while we become a laughing stock refusing the sensible path of coal fired stations. Talk about dumb and dumber all based on marxist media pressure and fake science.

runner I know we wander of topic at the drop of a hat, but tell me how your lurch helps farmers in this drought? right now price or not I bet if water was there to be used the pumps would run non stop,watching for other thoughts even denials, that we could in time,move water inland, remember one of the earliest methods was that simple screw to ,lift water and along the Nile water has for a very long time been moved from one place to another

I agree, Runner.

I have overlooked one simple thing we all can do, right now, if we go without a few beers or cups of coffee this week we could contribute to those sending help, we however can never ignore if we put together even a billion dollars the feed and water will still run out,willing always to debate coal Vs renewables in a thread dedicated to that subject

I am currently watching the W2BH pipeline being built - Wentworth to Broken Hill. This will move 37meg a day through a 762mm wide pipe 270km from the weir pool on the Murray at Wentworth to Broken Hill. The cost of construction is $500 million. The water has to go uphill, so there are three pumping stations along the way; I can't find any figures for the electricity running costs.

So isn't this great? Well, it's pretty controversial out here, even in Broken Hill which stands to benefit. The biggest concern is that it will permit the lower Darling River to be turned off. Previously, water had to be allowed to flow to the Menindee Lakes to supply Broken Hill, and that water also serviced irrigation at Menindee, the town of Pooncarie and irrigation on the lower Darling. Now there's no need to send them any water down the river so they'll go out of business. Who will benefit? The big irrigators at the top of the Darling and its tributaries who have been rorting the system. They're are being rewarded, being able to keep all the water that would have otherwise have gone downstream.

How do we know the Darling will be turned off? Water used to be released from the Menindee Lakes down the Anabranch channel to the west of the Darling. About 15 years ago, a pipeline for stock water was built from the Murray to the Lower Anabranch, and the Anabranch as not flowed since; partly that was due to the Millenium Drought, but no flow will happen again except in extreme floods.

Did we get consulted about W2BH? Well, yes, if by consulting you just mean a visit from some FIFO Sydney politicians and public servants who announce: 'We've come to consult with you. We're going to build a pipeline. Goodbye.' Wentworth had the first demonstration ever in its nearly 160 year history; but of course the town and the irrigation areas are a well-known hot-bed of those greenie, commie, liberal and one nation party voting anarchists, so the government paid no attention.

Cossomby did not know about that,but if we could deliver the same amount to the headwaters of the mentioned river? or pump coastal water over the great divide would it not for a time run down on its own, the Snowy diverted a river and gave us power, could we use it again to produce both power and inland water? I have a horrible feeling by the time this drought ends we will have much pain to think about and try to fix