Taming the Australian Desert !

People living in cities on the Australian coastal fringe generally consider the vast centre of this continent to be a worthless desert.  It certainly does have a low annual rainfall but when the occasional flood rains arrive it instantly comes to life.  This regular life cycle around Lake Eyre is a phenomenon that attracts tourists.

The commercial interest in inland Australia is concentrated on mining.  We are a country that exports minerals to the world and unfortunately that tends to operate on a boom or bust cycle.  As a result, mining no longer generates country towns.  We tend to operate mines on the "fly in - fly out " principal to avoid the cost of permanent housing.  Miners work removed from their families and mechanization is constantly reducing the numbers required.

Food security is now an issue that concerns most governments.  There is an expectation that the world population will reach ten billion by mid century and a doubt exists about whether we can feed those numbers.   Other populous countries are eying Australia with envy.  We have put restrictions in place to limit the sale of agricultural land to foreigners.

Northern Australia contributes to the economy as a source of cattle ranching and its vastness allows the herds to travel long distances in their search for food.  For the first time the CSIRO have started to carry out soil evaluation to determine its suitability for agriculture.   We are seriously considering our huge "outback " for its farm potential.

The initial reports are encouraging.  The science people have determined that soil in many areas carries the nutriments to  produce over a hundred varieties of high yield crops.  Unfortunately, water availability would only allow a fraction of this land to serve that purpose.

A century ago we embarked on a scheme to turn a wild river inland and to create intensive farming on what was then regarded as grazing country.  That became known as the Snowy River project and it delivered the Murrumbidgee Irrigation area, where a vast amount of Australia's food is grown.   That wild river also generates electricity by flowing through hydro electric pumping stations and contributes to the national economy.

If that Snowy River scheme was being constructed today we would do some things differently.   The water delivered to the MIA ran in open canals and much was lost by soaking into the soil and by evaporation.  Farming practice at that time also used flood irrigation.   Today that water would  travel in enclosed pipelines and it would be delivered to crops by drip irrigation.  The same volume of water would irrigate a vastly bigger farming area.

We have arable farming land in central and northern Australia.  Now we need to plan to deliver the water it will need.  The annual monsoon delivers the water but little of it flows inland.  Many of the coastal rivers simply return it to the ocean.   Logic demands that we trap and hold that monsoon rain and pipe it inland to where the land can be productive.   If necessary, our tropical sunshine can cheaply produce electric power to run desalination plants to supplement the monsoon where necessary.

The Snowy River scheme cost billions and took over fifty years for completion.  Developing the inland will not be any cheaper.  This could be a progressive project, under development to keep pace with the world demand for food to feed the growing population.

Australia has the potential to be the world's bread basket !