Australian what-ifs

A better, and cheaper, way to do this would be to dig a canal through from the top of St Vincent's Gulf and fill the lakes with sea water. As the evaporative rate would be high a constant flow would go through the canal, and could generate hydro power. Having the lakes constantly full would provide more moisture over the south east, the Mallee and Hay Plains in particular. It would also have an ameliorating effect on the super dry bursts that are such a massive problem in the Victorian fire storm fires.

Whilst this wouldn't supply fresh water directly, it would do so indirectly.

I remember reading a report on this a year or so ago. A plan called the "Bradfield scheme" was suggested to flood the lake and much of the basin in order to create a new area of arable land around the lakes and everything east of it. However, climatologists argued that the drop in temperature around the area would be negligable and that most of the evaportated water (over 90%) would fall over the ocean to the east. Nevertheless, it has frequently been pointed out that when the lakes do fill with water, there is a considerably smaller risk of extreme dought and bush fires in places like Victoria and NSW.

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

Russell
 
Last edited:
That was my reaction as well, but the engineers tell me that it is very doable. Evidently they have run the numbers and it would work. The key is the evaporation in the lakes. Mind you, it would need to be a bloody big canal.

You also have to remeber that in some places the salt pan that makes up the bulk of the lake bed is in some places over 20m thick. With the introduction of water, most of that salt would dissolve, making the lake deeper still - although you would probably be left with a body of water with a higher salt content than that of the Dead Sea and would probably require near constant de-salinisation. Maybe Australia could sell the salt to Europe so our local council have no excuse to clear the roads when it snows?

Russell
 
14. Sir Joh leads Queensland to independance, successfully drills for oil in the Barrier Reef, exports our Uranium to anyone who'll buy it, making billions (including coal and gas we export OTL anyway!) We become the Abu Dhabi of Oceania, Queensland annexes territory down to Byron Bay and establishes a protectorate over the Northern territory.

What a massive Queensland-wank. I will def need to get that written up.
Or alternately, Queensland tries to annex land belonging to the Commonwealth of Australia and promptly gets its arse kicked by the combined forces of the Australian, New Zealand and American militaries. Queensland is subsequently re-annexed to Australia and divided in three, with the northernmost third going to the Northern Territory and the remaining two thirds becoming the Queensland Territory and Capricornia Territory, receiving appropriate representation in the Australian Senate for their status.
 
Top