With floods progressing slowly downstream over such large areas of the Murray Darling Basin surely this is a time that all the various factions that over a decade ago GreenLabor wove into their MDB plan could let the current huge flows work naturally through the system which should result in a huge flushing of fresh water to the sea.
Our GreenLeft/ALPABC reports —
Water Minister Tanya Plibersek says Coalition dam money will go towards secret fund to buy water rights from irrigators 30Oct22
www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-30/tanya-plibersek-dam-money-go-to-water-buyback-murray-darling/101591002
The Minister seems to be gloating about stopping Morrison Govt dam projects which were already stalled in antidam State bureaucracies and using the $Bns to buy water out of the MDB plan for future flushing downstream to the sea.
Making the MDB a smaller & less important future food-bowl and the wide brown land will be a weaker food producer.
I wonder how many farmers will fall for that?
No future supply and a drop in value for the farm.
The ALP has always hated farmers.
The old days of AWU members being a strong voting block for the ALP are over.
ALP is now ONLY for the inner-city Late sippers and Chardonay guzzlers..
A few years ago I stopped at, I think, Cockburn just west of Broken Hill on my way east from Adelaide. Just a small cluttered coffee cafe type of establishment, but I needed a loo then a morning coffee.
To my utter delight, a quite detailed geohydrological map of Australia was posted on one of the walls. I spent over half an hour just examining this while drinking two cups of the coffee and absorbing the information on the map. (To my regret, I never photographed it – and I should have. Perhaps the owner may have accepted $50 to buy it).
So ? Well, this map outlined in great clarity the extended catchment area for Lake Eyre. I had never seen this information before done with such precision. From Mt Isa to Alice Springs to just north of Adelaide – an enormous area. Clearly, the Lake filled intermittently when cyclones managed to drop over the Dividing Range in Q’ld, or sufficiently far inland from the Darwin coastal regions. Then the “outback” came alive as the water drained over many months into the lowest point on the continent’s surface – the central south-western depression forming the Lake (currently measured at -15m below sea level). Under the head of that gigantic volume of water (but spread so thinly over half the continent), the little creeks can actually flow uphill. The size and intricacy of this system blows my mind. How long did it take to evolve to this ?
Yet I see just in the last week yet another academic activist is sprouting green “Garden of Eden” rhetoric about one of the peripatetic creeks that drain into the Lake in order to forestall possible hydrocarbon gas exploration.
As with the MDB, we know these people lie with intent by omission . They know we know … and they don’t care. Such are the wages of tenure for us “others”.
Was you map something like this 1987 Version from GA? Link to full size image
Thanks for that Warwick, but no, not the one I examined. As I said, I’m still chagrined that I was too dim to either photograph it or just buy it outright. It had a definitive theme of information of practical value (exploration, perhaps).
The little shop was not too far out of Broken Hill, so I have no doubt it was donated to the shop stop by someone who knew their stuff … Broken Hill is forever etched in my mind as quintessential central Australian mining geology. Sort of a geologist’ sacred site (oops). Certainly the opposite to the academic activists we are describing here.
I called the Border Gate Cafe in case the map was still there – lady said she was the only possible coffee stop in Cockburn – she said there is no map on her wall now.
A bit like this?
soe.environment.gov.au/sites/default/files/report2016/inland-water/SoE2016-InlandWater-Layout-01-web-resources/image/SoE2016_wat_fig13_streamflowlakeeyre.png?acsf_files_redirect
>”I called the Border Gate Cafe in case the map was still there …”
Golly, thanks Warwick 🙂
Then maybe not Cockburn, but a little further west along the A32. I was quite close to Broken Hill.
The little coffee place had heaps of signs etc on its’ walls – very cluttered, as I said. The hydrogeo map was the one that interested me.
@Graeme No.3
Yep, that section was overlaid on a full map of the continent – but the section you’ve linked is definitely the one I examined.
Wonderful !!
ian8888:
Olary used to be a nest of geologists in the 60’s and 70’s, not unrelated to there being a pub there.
Given that the current population is supposedly 4, I don’t suppose it has a coffee house.
Graeme No. 3
Probably was Olary, just a bit west the SA/NSW border. From (dim) memory, the coffee “shop” seemed to have a small pub bar but at that time of the morning there were no takers so I took little notice of it.
I was fascinated by the wall poster collection and as we’ve established, the hydrogeo exploration-type map.
My interest has been re-sparked by a query I’ve had on the possibility of “shale” gas deposits in the region. Given the Albanese Govt’s determination to regress us back to the 1500’s, I have little expectation here.
Anyway, you and Warwick have been helpful. I’ve already taken the map you linked to and overlaid it on a full continent map – just in case Bowen, Minister for Ugly, is over-ridden by Cabinet.
2015 _South_Australian_Fuel_and_Technology_Report.pdf
Put out by AEMO
page 18 showing gas basins
page 13? showing major coal basins
Neither looks that promising around that locality
Yes, we’ve picked over the AEMO maps at some length earlier.
There are a few private drillholes that were looking for metalliferous deposits and had incidentally shown weak traces of hydrocarbons. But as I said, I have little hope in the current political culture.
For Warwick – just watch Bluewaters Power Station in the Collie Basin. This is an unholy mess and does threaten Perth’s power supply. Again, confidentiality prevents further comment from me (I know the ABC has half-heartedly reported on it, but only from their perspective of hoping another coal-fired power station will fall over).
In 2016 I blogged twice on Collie –
West Australian Treasurer goes all Green talking of shutting down Collie coal fired electricity generation 25Jan2016
www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=4249
Coal future at risk for Collie 25Jan2016
thewest.com.au/news/wa/coal-future-at-risk-for-collie-ng-ya-135689
and – Small electricity generator delivered Collie – where there is much surplus capacity 17May2016
www.warwickhughes.com/blog/?p=4477
amazing – link to WAToday still works
I agree the current Collie coal issue is an unholy mess. But WA Gov holds all the high cards. Their resources dept would already have huge powers to intervene and facilitate a solution. Or – Premier could pass any law he likes to give WA Gov – or any entity – legal frame to intervene to get Collie coal into some furnace where it is required to keep WA lights on. Any of the above authorities could also arrange to import NSW coal from Newcastle or Qld coal for that matter. Interesting scene to watch.
Sorry Warwick, but Bluewaters/Premier/Griffin is in a bigger mess than you may think.
Not even McGowan can alter geological deposits, not by decree, statute, Acts or even just jumping up and down while yelling. Importing from the Hunter is a live, very costly option . But yes, McGowan is active here.
I’ve become involved in this by request (not mine, I’ve become a little tired of helping fix other people’s messes) and it’s just as well for my peace of mind that I live on the other side of the continent.
This is a space to watch, though. Just disregard most of what the ABC may produce as comment … I’m sure you do, anyway.