Tough life for cockies

The drought was bad enough- it seemed like it would never end. As the saying goes- it never rains- then it pours. At one stage about 97% of NSW was drought declared. Now it seems that much is flooded. Not quite, but it is pretty severe over most of eastern side of the continent. From FNQ although the way down through Queensland, NSW, Victoria and SA, a lot of flooded land is to be seen.

Apparently, there is a 160km strectch of flooded land between Wagga and Tumut. In Queenbeyan, which is now flooded, the water rose 3 metres in just 2 hours, and eleswhere water rose 4 metres in as many hours. I haven't heard of flooding on this scale since the mid 70's.

And if that's not bad enough, a severe locust plague is affecting Victoria. For anyone on ORS dealing with flood waters, and especialy if you live on the land, I really feel for you.

Being from the other side we hear a little about the droughts but more about how dry the Murray is..........has this been eased or completely fixed now?

A lot of what has fallen up around Bourke should make it to the Murray, and Lake Alexandrina / The Coorong this time.

With Wagga in flood I'd imagine the Murray is looking good. If there is water in the Darling from Burke then Adelaide should be happy

Sounds like it's not all bad news then.

No- apparently it has been great for rice and cotton farmers. Rice and cotton require lots of water. But the stupid thing is that other farmers have to pay to pump flooded water into their reservoirs, and what they pump is taken off their water allocation, which they almost never get but have paid for. They then have to sell what they can on the international market against heavily subsidised products from the rest of the world without the benefit of subsidies themselves. Farmers, graziers and miners have the hardest civilian jobs I can think of- something those of us with more cushy jobs need to be always mindful of. I doubt most of us could hack it. I know I couldn't.

Either way the murray still has loads of issues regardless of the water that's fallen in recent times.

Even though there are plenty of floods around and there appears to be loads of water around, not much of that is expected to reach the Murray mouth where it is really needed. Dams, levies and irrigation storages will all be filled before the water is allowed to move on, water will be pumped to other storages and there's also the floodwater catchments that will be filled. While water will reach the mouth it won't be as much as it could've been and will never be "enough".

Add all of this together and it doesn't leave much for the mouth, then there are the natural losses along the way - seepage into underground aquifers (a good thing generally unless there's a dam built in that area - another issue though for another time) and evaporation.

The biggest issue for the Murray is that its not controlled by one authority, so there is a load of politics in place for anything to happen. The Murray was allowed to be state controlled rather than federally controlled when our federation was constructed - to make it all happen the "what was to be" federal government threw the murray water control back to the states. That's what's the federal government is trying to re-gain now - control of the Murray for a whole view approach rather than a state based view.

As for the farmers - they're unfortunately the pawns between the governments and the environmental "needs". While we need to irrigate for food I continue to wonder why we produce cotton and rice in such an arid country where water is always an issue. These industries, as harsh as it sounds to the growers involved, should not be encouraged in Australia, rather we should focus on food production for quality foods produced in a water smart way.

Maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew, but this is what I think about when these things come back to the public via the media who don't convey the whole story.

Cheers

Bennie

One other thing to add: it will be great for wetlands and the red gum forests that need flooding as a part of their cycle and survival. Plus the birds will be going nuts and hopefully some of the nutrient build up will be flushed out...

Cheers

Bennie

Mate, I too until recently though that it was strange for us to have us growing cotton and rice. BUT. Imagine if you diverted- like we did with Snowy Mountains Scheme 50 years ago- all the water up north that flows into the sea, inland. The amount I'm taling about is massive. We are one day going to run out of raw materials, and manufacturing is dying. With all that water diverted, we could get sustainable agriculture done on such a massive scale we could export it everywhere. With that level of irrigation, almost no other country would have the sheer amount of hitherto unihabited land with good growing weather. Think of it: US, India and China despite their size are too heavily populated. Canada and Russia are too cold. Maybe Argentina or Brazil could do it, but not many others. There would be more than enough for agriculture, the lakes and the rivers- everything many times over. Otherwise we will just end up importing everything and making nothing. Instead of wasting 50 billion on NBN we could do something useful.

Would this be considered a drought buster? Is the water getting to the places where the water supply comes from?

According to the NSW Government, none of the state is in drought. See https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/emergency/drought/situation/drought-maps. It has been a long time since that was the case- many years. The Darling River- our longest- starts in Queensland and I hear they also have had lots of rain. Places like Wagga are relatively close to the Murray River- so they will feed it, plus any snow from the snowy mountains- if there is any left this late in the year- will do the same. So yes, except for the south east of the state NSW is looking half ok. I hope the rest of the country is too, but I think WA is a bit dry

Rally said:

Mate, I too until recently though that it was strange for us to have us growing cotton and rice. BUT. Imagine if you diverted- like we did with Snowy Mountains Scheme 50 years ago- all the water up north that flows into the sea, inland. The amount I'm taling about is massive. We are one day going to run out of raw materials, and manufacturing is dying. With all that water diverted, we could get sustainable agriculture done on such a massive scale we could export it everywhere. With that level of irrigation, almost no other country would have the sheer amount of hitherto unihabited land with good growing weather. Think of it: US, India and China despite their size are too heavily populated. Canada and Russia are too cold. Maybe Argentina or Brazil could do it, but not many others. There would be more than enough for agriculture, the lakes and the rivers- everything many times over. Otherwise we will just end up importing everything and making nothing. Instead of wasting 50 billion on NBN we could do something useful.

Click to expand...

Rally,
Diversion pretty much stuffed the Snowy River for 60 years, with some flows only finally being returned this year.
Diversion of the Qld rivers would have a huge impact on the Great Barrier Reef, already suffering from global warming.
I would LOVE to see this level of consistent flow to inland NSW and SA agriculture, but don't believe it can be achieved without significant unintended adverse consequences.
(Likewise the late Lance Barnard's plan to pipe gas and water from the north west to the south east, using gas to power the pumping of both networks.)

Did I say "IF" there was any snow left on the Snowy Mountains? Well, there is plenty there now. While our friends shiver in the northern hemisphere's bitter winter, we too are experiencing the wonders of "global warming" with snow falling- in late December! It was very cold in Sydney this morning- in fact across much of the south east.

And snow at 'Mount' Baw Baw in Victoria - one of the most marginal ski fields in any year!