If Individual is from South Australia it would explain why he is promoting development of Lake Eyre- but South Australia is the driest State.

Canem malum,
I'm from very near the Gulf country & only yesterday I checked the rising river down the road from the effect of the overnight rain.
The floodwaters are pushing a massive brown streak of mud out into the GBR as do all the other flooded creeks for several hundred km along the coast. I thought would't it be great if the excess run-off that is prevented from soaking into the ground by coastal infrastructure could be diverted into the western slopes of the GDR.

To HenryL- India will have a population of two billion by 2050 unless something is done (India had 50% population under 15 in 2003, as of 2017 still has 4 births per female)- I suspect that something will break well before then- but their excesses will continue to affect the world- it will take a long time till the world can recover. Africa is also a serious issue- continent wide they have a comparable population to India with 50% population under 18. It seems likely that India and Africa will add well over two billion to world population by 2100.

See medium prediction from UN below. (Not that I trust the UN).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/World_population_v3.svg/260px-World_population_v3.svg.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

This ones interesting...

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

So you're not from SA. I stand corrected.

It's a concern that the flood waters are affecting the Great Barrier Reef (GBR)! Yes Northern Queensland is know for its sudden downpours. The Great Dividing Range (GDR) is where the water is originating from I guess- but that's not the same as diverting the water inland. Perhaps damming some of the rivers could be a useful and not an overly expensive possibility. But many of the great rain forests are located there so there would be opposition and environmental impact with such things. A dam would also probably encourage more human activity near the Great Barrier Reef. Probably farming around places like Tully (Bananas) contributes to the mud ending up on the GBR. Thanks for your thoughts Individual.

You'd have to find a way to get the water through the Great Dividing Range to the Western side I guess. It would be expensive. Tunnels cost about a hundred million per kilometre. Building "one" tunnel is likely a $10B project. "You would need a few" to divert runoff from the Great Barrier Reef. So project cost would run to $50B or more on those figures.

Any way I believe the answer to man's problems lies in more "conservative responsible discipline" and less "liberal progressive freedom" (in this case free trade).

I wouldn't want our "water flood diversion" program to "create a flood of Indian immigrants" to middle Australia. India needs to solve it's own problems. Not use tax payers money to fund an Indian invasion.

Aiden- Just a point of order. The Great Dividing Range produces fresh water whereas the Gulf of Carpentaria produces sea water I believe. Your other points appear in order.