The route for a drought-proofing gravitational channel from Northern Australia to Victoria passes through areas of suitable soils for irrigation – especially areas of vertisols or deep black clay soils. These soils are deep, fertile and impermeable when wet allowing … Read the rest
The route for a drought-proofing gravitational channel from Northern Australia to Victoria continues from St George in Queensland, past Moree in New South Wales before looping back around Bourke and heading down the Darling River Valley into the established irrigation … Read the rest
Here is our plan for a National Water Grid to drought-proof Australia – Stage 1. It shows the route map of proposed gravity-fed channels from the North Queensland collection points including Hell’s Gate dam into the Murray Darling Basin.
The … Read the rest
All the details and economic projections for the environmentally-friendly Bradfield Scheme variation proposed by Dr Stockwell.
What’s wrong with agricultural planning in Australia? The answer to this question is the ‘why’ behind the interest in the Bradfield Scheme. Pictured are the catchments for new dams identified by a long and detailed study of northern Australian opportunities … Read the rest
Jason Hall has found a number of viable routes for a fully gravitational surface aqueduct to the Murray Darling Basin from Northern Queensland.
Previously, we showed a gravitational route from the upper Burdekin River, crossing the Great Dividing Range at … Read the rest
We all benefit from innovations in sustainable health and the environment. Maintaining the health and the ecological conditions in which species and humans can survive is the foundation for ensuring that every creature lives on despite an ecosystem where thousands … Read the rest
My contributions to research have been recognized by the US Immigration Service as an Outstanding Researcher due to my peer-reviewed publications in biodiversity, human health and artificial intelligence (ResearchGate, Scholar, LinkedIn). I myself have a Ph.D. … Read the rest
The potential of filling Lake Eyre is another of those nation-building schemes that fires the imagination. Various schemes have been brought forward for filling the Lake and improving this desert region, the oldest is that of letting sea water into … Read the rest
Each development of a Bradfield Scheme is different from others, and others are different from each other. Each one has been approached with different goals in mind, the plans are different, and so also they cannot be criticized as too … Read the rest
In addition to the agricultural and industrial benefits of large water diversion projects, there are many environmental benefits that could help to popularise these large water diversions by contributing to renewable energy, CO2 sequestering, countering land degradation, and enhancing habitat.… Read the rest
The South–North Water Transfer Project, a multi-decade infrastructure mega-project in the People’s Republic of China, ultimately aims to channel 44,800 GL of fresh water annually from the Yangtze River in southern China to the more arid and industrialized north. … Read the rest
Let’s examine the statistical characteristics of a long open half-channel, considering the property of an intelligent system – i.e. responding appropriately to intermittent disturbances to maintain a constant or homeostatic environment.
We have all experienced the intermittency of rainfall, lasting … Read the rest
The breakthrough system developed by Leon Ashby for capturing and transferring flood flows in a Bradfield Scheme has a number of advantages over pipelines. The slide above is taken from Leon’s presentation and lists 3 benefits over a pipeline system. … Read the rest
The 80-year-old Bradfield scheme is a proposed world-class inland irrigation project that was designed to irrigate and drought-proof much of the north and western Queensland interior. The Scheme required large pipes, tunnels, and dams from the upper reaches of the … Read the rest
… Read the rest18 I will open up rivers for them on the high plateaus.
I will give them fountains of water in the valleys.
I will fill the desert with pools of water.
Rivers fed by springs will flow across the parched
The necessity for irrigation schemes. Comparison of size of global schemes. Australia is 23rd in world rank. Why so far behind? Examples of world irrigation projects. Existing Australian irrigation projects. Current Queensland projects, existing and planned – pathetic. … Read the rest
The groundwater at Rome was notoriously unpalatable, and water from the Tiber was unsafe to drink. Aqua Appia, Rome’s first aqueduct (312 BC) was commissioned by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus as a publicly funded major project.
By the late … Read the rest
In Queensland, CSIRO have identified the Mitchell catchment (yellow area above) as the greatest potential to increase greenfield development opportunities in Northern Australia, and the coastal regions of the Fitzroy and Burdekin River catchments for enhancements. However, developments in these … Read the rest
Let’s look at similar water storage and distribution systems to the New Bradfield Scheme, in California.
California is 400 km wide and 1200 km long. It has a land area of 423,970 km2 of which 36,421 km2 is … Read the rest
The new Bradfield Scheme could provide 30 thousand km2 of new irrigated land in inland Queensland, more than doubling the land under irrigation, and catapulting Australia from 23rd place by irrigated land area (between Peru and Japan) to 8th place … Read the rest
The Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra announcing, if re-elected, the LNP government would introduce a new statutory authority called the National Water Grid tasked to managed water infrastructure around Australia (with Bradfield … Read the rest
How do gravity fed systems work? Examples of Gravity fed systems. Yeomans Keyline system. Permaculture. Colorado River. Climate variability, rainfall sources monsoon in northern Queensland, flood flows vs regular flows, soil types suitable for irrigation, water tables. Economics of pumping … Read the rest
Pause to think about why farmers dam water. Usually, it is to store intermittent or seasonally variable rain until the optimal growing season of the crop when water becomes limiting.
When it is most needed, the rainfall deficit coincides with … Read the rest
Local water storage doesn’t last through Australian droughts.
The South Burnett is located on top of Australia’s Great Dividing Range just two hours drive north-west of Brisbane, Australia and directly west of the Sunshine Coast. The South Burnett is Queensland’s … Read the rest
Through control of the supply of water to certified producers including mines and farmers, the Bradfield Scheme can drive the environmental and humane animal husbandry outcomes that consumers seem to increasingly demand.
Sustainability branding is the process of creating, maintaining … Read the rest
Steel is made from iron ore, coal, water, and other trace elements. Shipping both ore and coal to a third location is an inefficient use of the world’s biggest bulk ships that return empty half the distance. Project “Iron … Read the rest
Heights of locations, Flows in streams, soil types.… Read the rest
The experts say it can’t be done, but a close look at the elevations of the sources, storages and destinations for the Bradfield Scheme says otherwise.
The ideal gradient for an open gravity-fed irrigation channel is 1:5000 or 100m per … Read the rest
In assessing viability, the value of any project has two components – capex and opex. An operating expense or opex is an ongoing cost for running a project, a capital expenditure (capex), is the cost of developing the project.
CAPEX … Read the rest
The flows in North Queensland Rivers can vary enormously, up to 1000GL per day on an annual average flow of a few GL per day. The design of an aqueduct to accommodate both regular flows and yet capture significant flood … Read the rest
Bradfield. Leon Ashby. Sir Leo. David Stockwell… Read the rest
Above is a schematic diagram of a gravity-fed mini-Bradfield Scheme transporting water from the coastal rivers via a levy/pipeline combination (blue) to the storage and distribution lakes on the Great Dividing Range (green).
The levy would accumulate water from the … Read the rest
… Read the restOur nation would create a massive expansion for irrigation, providing a substantial increase in wealth and vital economic stimulus for far western towns including Augathella, Charleville, Cunnamulla and Bourke. Additionally this would also provide the vital water for Menindee Lakes
Sir Leo Hielscher and Sir Frank Moore have updated the Bradfield Scheme, originally conceived in the 1930s by the man who designed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The proposal calls for a series of dams, pipelines and irrigation channels across … Read the rest
Fraser Anning and Leon Ashby will be flying around and showing contour maps of 3 proposed water diversion schemes
1 – Bradfield (Hells Gate to Muttaburra & Aramac) via Pentland
2 – Walsh, Tate, Einasleigh, Gilbert Rivers diverted to Richmond… Read the rest
Stages 1, 2, 3, 4.… Read the rest
Low water delivery costs of major irrigation projects are critical to the potential return on investment for government and private sector investors. The fully pumped irrigation schemes would only be viable in circumstances of high prices or high-value products.
The … Read the rest
It is really amazing what can be done … Read the rest
Here is an alternative route for an aqueduct into the Murray-Darling basin developed by Jason Hall. This follows the route from the Herbert and Hells Gate down near Charters Towers to Lake Galilee, where it branches to the Mitchell … Read the rest
This nifty poster from Cotton Australia is annotated with the new and existing cotton production areas that would potentially benefit from the Bradfield Scheme.
In the Northern Murray-Darling Basin, cotton is grown mostly in the south in the Darling Downs, … Read the rest
What are the economics? Constriction cost per ML storage. Cost per ML provided. Cost of construction. Breakdown by stage. Potential revenues by crops and water efficiency … Read the rest
The comparative internal rate of return for the scheme including the supply of North Queensland flood water to the Murray -Darling Basin is between 5-10%, based on capital expenditure of $12.75 billion dollars, and annual agricultural revenue between $2 and … Read the rest
It’s so much fun thinking about the New Bradfield Scheme, as it raises as many solutions as it does problems. Water, for a drought-prone nation like ours, is a precious resource. The Adani Coal Mine between Clermont and Charters Towers … Read the rest
Effects on the reef, fish, vegetation.… Read the rest
A recent study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution journal provides support for better control over flood flows such as would be captured by the New Bradfield Scheme and redirected to storage dams inland. Flood flows carry debris, sediments, nutrients, … Read the rest
Estimates of river pollutant loads to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon indicate the Fitzroy and Burdekin catchments contribute at least 70 per cent of the anthropogenic total suspended solids load to the Great Barrier Reef lagoon, with grazing lands (gully … Read the rest
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 … Read the rest
Funding models… Read the rest
The Morrison government will try to lure skilled migrants away from the nation’s choked cities with a new visa requiring them to spend at least three years in regional Australia as a condition of seeking permanent residency.
Under proposed changes, … Read the rest
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 … Read the rest
… Read the restWater security is at the centre of the NSW Nationals election pitch to regional NSW, with the deputy premier floating a decades-old multi-state inland irrigation plan at the party’s campaign launch.
Nationals leader John Barilaro on Sunday confirmed he would
Published in On Line Opinion
… Read the restA scheme generating the agricultural revenue of the Murray-Darling Basin, the renewable power of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, flood water control to save the Reef, and mitigation of flood damage to environmental, personal and public
[bbp-forum-index] … Read the rest
This was my first go at finding a viable gravity-only route from a coastal river to the inland catchments. Gravity-feed is so important for keeping the cost of the water down. In this case, it flows into the Cooper Creek … Read the rest
COMING SOON: The 80 year old Bradfield scheme is a proposed world-class inland irrigation project that was designed to irrigate and drought-proof much of the north and western Queensland interior. The Scheme required large pipes, tunnels, and dams from the … Read the rest
