The One Nation ‘hybrid’ Bradfield Scheme is a Clayton’s Bradfield Scheme – the Bradfield Scheme you are having when you are not having a Bradfield Scheme.

One Nation committed in January 2017 to a ‘hybrid’ Bradfield Scheme approach to water security to drought-proof the State and made a number of public statements and a members bill mentioning Bradfield.  A Bradfield Scheme must, by definition surely, include the transfer of water from coastal rivers across the Great Dividing Range in order to benefit inland areas. It may optionally include transporting water to the Murray-Darling Basin. But the building of a scheme to transfer of water inland or to the MDB is not mentioned in the list of projects on the PHON water policy webpage.

One Nation will:

1. Support the Commonwealth in building additional capacity on the Burdekin catchment through raising the Burdekin Falls Dam supporting Townsville and the Galilee and Bowen Basins mining operations and Lower Burdekin irrigation.

2. Support the selection of storage options in the Fitzroy catchment.

3. Urgently examine the opportunities for dam level raising in the south-east.

4. Cost the Nathan Dam and pipelines project for water security for mining, power, urban and agriculture users in the Surat Coal Basin and Dawson-Callide region.

PHON Water Security policy

No mention of the transfer of water from coastal rivers across the Great Dividing Range in order to benefit inland areas or the Murray-Darling.

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The approval of the massive Adani (Carmichael Coal) Mine has been delayed by ongoing concerns with the groundwater plan. What if the mine did not have to use groundwater at all, but drew water from massive storages created nearby at Lake Buchanan and Lake Galilee? The unused salt lakes perched on the Great Dividing Range could be filled with flood water from an aqueduct to Hells Gate Dam on the headwaters of the Burdekin River.

Low-cost gravitational flow is viable, as it is downhill from all the way from the headwaters of the Burdekin, providing Hells Gate Dam is built to a sufficient height.

Not only Adani, but 5 mines have been approved for the Galilee Coal Basin (see image). Are they going to run into the same water sourcing problems too? A Galilee pipeline should be constructed to pipe water east from the two storages and so mitigate the environmental impact of these mines on ground and surface waters.

The mines in the Bowen Basin draw water from the Burdekin Falls Dam via a pipeline – why not build the same river saving infrastructure for the Galilee Basin?

In addition, the storages could also be used for town water supply and irrigation of the fertile Mitchell Grass Downs to the west of the Great Dividing Range. Use a renewable supply of flood waters and leave the limited groundwater source alone.

Renewable hydropower generation is also possible at and between Lake Buchanan and Lake Galilee, as well as locations along the aqueduct route. The power generated could be sold to the mines, generating carbon-free revenue.

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