Tamworth Drought

[Patrick_R]

Gents,
I am currently conducting training with new staff at our Tamworth dealership.

Tamworth is in its 3rd year of drought, and is very serious indeed.
So many farmers are selling up, and I heard last night at dinner that some farmers are paying up to $1800 a day for water & feed for their animals & breeding stock.

I’ve never seen anything so dry that isn’t a desert.
Quite shocking.
Every hotel room in the town, and people tell me they even have these in their houses now the water situation is so bad.

 

[SEL_69L]

The anxiousness at last, is very slowly sinking into the consciousness of Sydney dwellers.

So far, the Federal Government has spent $7.5 billion on various types of farmer drought support.

 

[sean sherry]

Tough times for some. Not to put in a sour note..... but I recall the most accurate description of this Country that adaptoped me many years ago ...
A drought country where it sometimes Rains. Sad, but true it seems.

 

[Patrick_R]

You are spot on Sean,

That’s why for a place with a landmass the size of North America we only have 25 million people, North America has over 570 million.

My head office is just outside of Tokyo, and the greater Tokyo (look at the greater Tokyo area being similar in size as from the Sydney CBD, out to Parramatta and then use a compass to make a circle around the Sydney CBD) area has over 38 million inhabitants, and Australia is over 20 times the size of all of the 4 islands of Japan.

We have to remember, it is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.

 

[Michel]

You are spot on Sean,
North America has over 570 million.

370 million (USA and Canada)

 

[Patrick_R]

Sorry Michel,
I’ve never heard a number that low for the population of North America.

Where did you get that number from?

 

[Michel]

Sorry Michel,
I’ve never heard a number that low for the population of North America.

Where did you get that number from?

I knew that from my vast geographical knowledge , but to confirm it for you I googled it and here it is.

 

[Patrick_R]

Michel,
I’ve made the error of saying “North America” instead of “USA”
North America



USA



It’s the USA, that has roughly the same land mass as we do.
And you are absolutely spot on.



My point was simply, a very big place with bugger all people as it is so dry

 

[Oversize]

The anxiousness at last, is very slowly sinking into the consciousness of Sydney dwellers.

So far, the Federal Government has spent $7.5 billion on various types of farmer drought support.

And yet the morons don’t see that they could’ve built a pipeline from the regularly flooded North down the East coast using all that money... Or even a desalination plant. It’s criminal the way water is being managed in this country and the farmers are literally paying the price. If it keeps going like this we’ll be importing EVERYTHING including food! And they’ll just keep paying out until it rains again.... Just like a badly managed company about to go into administration!

My dad recently reminded me that the Murray river used to regularly run dry to the point where paddle steamers sometimes got stuck high an dry for years on end....

 

[Patrick_R]

Your right Mark,
It’s criminal they have let it go on like this for over 100 years.
Visionary’s that long ago had plans for the Clarence River, but let’s spend billions of dollars on the (obsolete before it started) NBN.

Water is our life blood, and it works hand in hand with our farmers, soon there will be neither, and no one with the experience to start it again.

A disgrace

 

[sean sherry]

Is there a topographical Map somewhere which shows the obstacles to pumping water from North to South. There is a name for such Maps which show levels above sea levels. The name escapes me.

 

[SEL_69L]

I have had a look at maps displaying the river systems of the (North to south)
of the following rivers:

Tweed River
Richmond River
Clarence River
Macleay River
Hastings River
Manning River
and the upper reaches of the
Hunter River.

The coastal North East corner of NSW has the highest annual average rainfall of any region in that State.

After the style of the Bradfield Report (1938) and the Snowy Scheme,
damming the above NSW Northern rivers is quite feasible,
then
sending the water westwards through tunnels to gravitate into the NSW Western watershed, which is drained by the Darling River and it's tributaries.

A lot of the Shoalhaven River (NSW most powerful coastal river) is already diverted into the Warragamba catchment, and into some of the Eastern catchments that supply Sydney Wollongong areas with water.
However, much more can be done in this regard.
The proposed Welcome Reef Dam (about 2/3's the size of the Warragamba), on the Shoalhaven River was stopped by the Greens.

Nobody in Government is willing to consider building dams on the Grose or Cox's River to divert to the Warragamba catchment.
Why?
Both sides of the political divide are frightened by the Greens.

 

[SEL_69L]

Dams are good for keeping the inner catchments green.
One of the worst enemies of any dam is silting.
It is essential that inner catchment areas of any dam are forested.

Trees are the best way of absorbing CO2.
Therefore best forestry management for inner catchment areas is good.
Clean stored water is a bonus, as well as supplying a ready and close by water source for fighting bush fires in inner catchment areas.

That is why people are completely excluded from the inner area of the Warragamba catchment.

 

[Patrick_R]

A good read, and good info SEL