THE GREAT BOOMERANG

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:59): Today I rise to speak about a plan which has the potential not only to secure water for our state and reduce unemployment but which could also turn the centre of Australia into a fertile, habitable plain. We have the situation now where parts of northern New South Wales and Queensland are experiencing severe floods, yet we in South Australia are experiencing one of the worst droughts on record and the Murray-Darling Basin system is in crisis.

In 1941, Ion L. Idriess outlined a scheme in his book entitled The Great Boomerang. The idea proposes that water be channelled into the Georgina and Diamantina rivers and Cooper Creek through central Queensland into Lake Eyre. The theory is that if Lake Eyre is constantly flooded with water it will create a vast wetland, which would evaporate and create rainfall and therefore change the climate of the area. This would affect the entire area in central Australia, especially where New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory meet.

The area I have just described was once a vast inland sea many thousands of years ago, and the Idriess vision is to introduce water into the heart of Australia again. More importantly for South Australia, such a plan should create rainfall over the Murray-Darling Basin and, therefore, stimulate flow down the Murray River.

In addition to this plan of flooding Lake Eyre, Idriess briefly outlined the potential to divert the Paroo and Warrego rivers in southern Queensland and the Clarence River in northern New South Wales into the Murray-Darling Basin. The Clarence River proposal involved either pumping the water over the Great Dividing Range at a low point of about 1,000 feet altitude or tunnelling about 20 kilometres through the range in order to deliver the water to the Murray-Darling Basin. The surplus water from the Clarence River was estimated to be three times the volume of Sydney Harbour.

A similar idea, which involved diverting water from North Queensland rivers into central Queensland, known as the Bradfield scheme, received great attention from a former Queensland premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. The Bradfield scheme was developed by Dr John Bradfield, who is best known as the designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and who was also involved in a range of engineering works including the Cataract Dam near Sydney and the Burrinjuck Dam, which formed part of the Murrumbidgee irrigation area.

Bradfield presented his scheme to the Queensland government in 1938. However, it was not until the Bjelke-Petersen government came into power that the scheme received attention. A number of reports examining the feasibility of the scheme were commissioned, including the Cameron McNamara report of 1984, which revised the Bradfield scheme to integrate modern technology and new information. The Queensland government secured $5 million of federal government funding to proceed with the revised scheme. However, this funding was withdrawn by the newly elected Hawke government and the scheme subsequently never came to pass. By way of comparison, no political party of either persuasion has seen fit to investigate the feasibility of the Idriess idea.

The Great Boomerang also outlined the potential for hydro-electricity generated by waterfalls in Queensland and the kinetic energy caused by the flow of the river system to be utilised. Idriess wrote The Great Boomerang in 1941, when Australia was faced with problems similar to those we face today. The country was drought stricken, in desperate need of water and facing high levels of unemployment at the end of the war, with 600,000 returning servicemen and 300,000 munitions factory workers requiring employment. He highlighted the fact that, in addition to preventing drought and erosion and providing cheaper electricity, this also had the potential to establish a population in a currently uninhabitable area of the country. In addition, such a large-scale infrastructure project would create employment opportunities for thousands.

If Idriess thought it was feasible to build this project in the 1940s, with the limited technology available, I imagine that the plan would be much more effective should it be implemented today, with improved technology. Idriess stated:

The idea of The Great Boomerang may be, and probably will be, laughed at. But all should realise that we must do something with our surplus water. The interior of all Australia is crying out for it—and we allow this sea of fresh water to run to waste along our coasts every year. And I believe that if those who first study the cost think of the ultimate benefit to the nation then the cost will not stand in the way.

Time expired.