Trouble on the Murray

Talk about bungled boat ramps, net buybacks, marine no-go zones, mining disasters etc here.
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Matt Flynn
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by Matt Flynn »

The minister moved quickly on this one :D ... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-10/ ... l/10701766
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by al57 »

i think the farmers hit the nail on the head ,the pollies will be running in all directions to aviod this one
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by ronje »

Its a good thing that the water allocations for the Darling system is being well managed. :applause:

Cubbie cotton growing station in SW Qld is often quoted as the culprit for reduced water flow in the Culgoa River. Cubbie certainly is a player but there are heaps more "thirsty cotton growers" in SW Qld in the Dirranbandi area.

Being up the top of the Darling catchment, Cubbie has water licence allocations of 460,000 megalitres (184,000 olympic swimming pools). That amount (same volume as Sydney Harbour) comes off the top in a good year. Probably less in drier years as allocations are reduced.

However, the % taken from what's available in the Culgoa/Balonne river systems remains the same. Don't forget that Cubbie isn't the only taking the water.

Cubbie is owned by a Chinese/Japanese consortium growing cotton for s/e Asian markets. They bought Cubbie in about 2012 for about $400 million.

The then opposition leader Malcolm Turncoat was going to have the C'wealth Govt take it back when elected as being in the national interest. And he was right but nothing happened when the coalition got in.

The water is being plundered for overseas financial interest (profits from cotton agriculture). What benefit is that to Australians?

Approval of the Cubbie purchase by the overseas investment review board should never have happened and also needs to be looked at.

What a mess.

Since then we've had the disgraceful management, alleged corruption and an environmental disaster.

If ever there was a need for a royal commission, the purchase of Cubbie and Darling river water allocation system and management are dead set examples.

Aus needs to take back (with the method immaterial) Cubbie along with canceling the Chinese lease of Darwin Harbour on the grounds of national interest and or security.
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by ronje »

I can confidently convert 460,000 megalitres into how many olympic swimming pools that means (which is 186,000). But that's still just an awfully big number that I can't translate into my everyday world.

To do that, I've multiplied that big number (186,000) into a length if laid end to end ( which I can easily relate to).

Each olympic pool is 50 metres long so what distance is 186,000 of them laid end to end? = 186,000 X 50 metres = 9,300,000 metres = 9,300 km. Jeez!!

How long is the Darling River?

It's stretches up into the bottom half of Qld via its main tributaries Culgoa, Balonne, Maranoa and Condamine Rivers. The Balonne, Maranoa and Condamine Rivers rise in the same mountain ranges as the Fitzroy River which flows to Rockhampton in Central Qld. Those ranges are north of Roma in Qld. 2740 km.

The Darling is one helluva river being 2740 km in length to that watershed in Qld. It joins the Murray at a place called Wentworth on the Vic-NSW border.

So its 2740km from Wentworth to north of Roma.

But the maximum good wet year water allocation for Cubbie equates to 9300 km of Darling River at 2 metres deep!!

That's 3.4 times the total length of the Darling River to a depth of 2 metres! How does that work even in good times? The answer of course is that it doesn't and never will.

I'm certainly no supporter of the Greens. Nor am I an avid conservationist or climate change advocate (contrary to belief :roll: ).

But I do know when something is over the top and that's certainly what's happened here no matter how the state and Federal pollies AND the Murray Darling Basin Assn try to weasel out of it.
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by Matt Flynn »

Interesting.

There's a lot more to this, not least that food crops are being irrigated with water containing blue-green algae toxins such as BMAA.
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by Sullo »

But the maximum good wet year water allocation for Cubbie equates to 9300 km of Darling River at 2 metres deep!!

That's 3.4 times the total length of the Darling River to a depth of 2 metres! How does that work even in good times? The answer of course is that it doesn't and never will.


What is the average width of the river Ron?
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by Sullo »

If thats only Cubbie i wonder what the total allocations are?
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by ronje »

Sullo wrote:But the maximum good wet year water allocation for Cubbie equates to 9300 km of Darling River at 2 metres deep!!

That's 3.4 times the total length of the Darling River to a depth of 2 metres! How does that work even in good times? The answer of course is that it doesn't and never will.


What is the average width of the river Ron?
Don't know Sullo.

186,000 olympic swimming pools (each 50m long x 25 m wide x 2m deep) laid end to end for 9300 km is the size of the Cubbie water allocation in a good year.

Sydney Harbour holds 500,000 megalitres ( 500 gigalitres) or 200,000 olympic swimming pools. Only 14,000 swimming pools bigger than Cubbie.

These guys are taking nearly a sydney harbour of water out of the Culgoa River in a good wet year.

Have a look at the size of the Cubbie catchment (in yellow). Not very big is it? Hard to imagine that it gets enough rainfall to reach 460 gigalitres let alone take almost 1 Sydney Harbour of water out of it in a good year.

Not much left for the Darling downstream.

Qld Govt has been very very quiet about the problem.
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by NBN »

It’s an unmitigated disaster, becoming more blatantly obvious in these dry times.

No assistance forthcoming from the North West of the NSW. Keepit and Split Rock Dams (near Tamworth) on the Namoi Catchment are holding 0.4% and 4.3% respectively. Copeton near Inverell on the Gwydir River is circa 14.3% and dropping at 0.2%/day as the ‘Cotton’ release continues.

Grim.
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by ronje »

What is the 'Cotton release"?
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by NBN »

It’s exactly that Ronje; but also sold as an environmental release. Most is pumped out of the system.
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Re: Trouble on the Murray

Post by NBN »

Release will prob continue until mid/end Feb.
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