When the rains came .....

The city of Adelaide relies on the Murray/Darling river system for it's drinking water - and Adelaide is in trouble !

Increasing salinity is making the river marginal and the drought that persisted in Australia is causing the flow to almost cease. Huge expenditure is being considered and repatriation looks like becoming a Federal responsibility.

And then the heavens opened - and north Queensland had the biggest deluge in half a century.

The flood that is isolating a dozen Queensland towns and cities is in the catchment area for the Murray/Darling - and in the weeks to come a flood crest will move down river, flushing away the debris left by the drought and rejuvenating the vast array of farms and industry that rely on water from the river to sustain crops.

In due course that flood tide will arrive in Adelaide, push back the creeping salinity and give the South Australian capital a new lease of life.

The city is being given a respite, but if the climate change people are correct there will be more droughts and now is not the time for the Federal government to back away from the rescue plans being formed.

There is no lack of water in the far north of this country. We have the seasonal monsoon and there is no reason why some of that annual flood can not be harvested and fed into the headwaters of the Murray Darling.

It is our biggest river and reaches from it's base in north Queensland to the ocean shores of South Australia. Providing a constant supplement from the north will cost a lot of money, but that will pale into insignificance when compared to the farms and industry it sustains right across this country.

Many years ago we startled the world when we successfully harvested the Snowy river and turned it inland. This challenge may be equally as big - but we have the technology to do it. All that is required is the willingness !