Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

What about reversing desertification Earthbound? One could naturally change weather patterns over time and bring rainfall to areas that were once desert.

What is everyone's thoughts about the Ord river pipeline to Perth idea?

My farm was on the lower ord ... If people had an idea of the amount of water that flows out to sea in the wet from the ord river dam it would blow your mind ... People laughed at Colin Barnetts idea in fact he lost an election over it ... But people also ridiculed CY Oconnor his pipeline is still in use 100 years later .. I think it's a good idea for the future , pump water and gas together ...

The fact is Australia was colonized in the South because of the weather suiting the poms , the real wealth is in the Nth

What are reasons for opposing such a project? I guess the biggest thing is cost. But I just want to point out that I heard a rumour the new Perth Arena complex cost half a Billion Dollars!

Lack of vision

It was actually Ernie Bridge's idea!... about 25 years ago!... but his initial idea was to pipe water from the Fitzroy... and open up places such as Meekatharra etc as food bowls.

From memory, I think Colin Barnett's idea was actually for a covered canal rather than a pipeline... I don't know why... I would've thought there'd be a lot of water loss due to evaporation and that a pipeline would be cheaper and easier to maintain.

The opposition to the idea really annoyed me.
If it was a pipeline carrying slurry from a mine people wouldnt have thought twice about it.

I guess the chloramine in the water may have been annoying though...

The pipeline (or canal) from the Ord is a dead idea. Do you have any idea how much pumping power is needed to move the water from Kununurra to Perth? Water doesn't flow from North to South, otherwise Antarctica would be a lot wetter. The pressure loss due to friction, which is minimal in most AP systems, would be REALLY high after 3000 km. It costs about one-fifth the amount to pump sea water through a membrane (reverse osmosis) to produce pure water - and the capital and maintenance costs are MUCH higher for a long pipeline compared to a desalination plant. In today's prices, 1 kL from the Ord river would cost $5, compared to $1/kL from desalination.

Other pipelines (eg slurry from mines, and WA's natural gas pipeline) are transporting materials with a much greater intrinsic value than water. Even the Kalgoorlie pipeline was built because the gold industry couldn't survive without adequate water supplies, and Kalgoorlie is much smaller (and uses less water) than Perth. Kalgoorlie's water was subsidised by the gold miners.

I'd missed the responses to this thread..

Yeah, I think the canal idea was a joke.. If we spent a fraction of the money in helping kerb excessive water use, and on intelligent designs and reuse of water schemes within the burbs then you cut the water usage. It's like our medical systems, treating symptoms not causes.

There are plenty of small local ideas that can cut water needs enormously. New suburbs should have to be designed intelligently rather than as a stand of McMansion urban sprawl. Water is kept within the landscapes reducing the need for irrigating with drinking water as many places do. Houses and gardens need to be designed efficiently, people need to take responsibility for their actions and their consumption. Our water is still ridiculously cheap... It's not someone elses problem that there's a lack of water, it's every individuals problem, and as with most things, if you want to make change in the world, start at home.

Intelligent design is the answer, not just "lets find water from somewhere else and get it here"..

The kalgoorlie pipeline cost $2.5 million to build in 1896 and pumps 23,000 kilolitres over 530km a day, it passes through 8 pumping stations and 2 holding dams to control pressures and to lift the water over the Darling Scarp ridge.

Thank you Mr Wiki

Seriously: that is very impressive stuff.

There was a very cool doco earlier in the year about the building of the pipeline, there were some crazy stats about the pipe and labour use..

Yeah... let's grow food... where the water is....

Water does flow from north to south otherwise rivers wouldn't exist (also every other direction)
The definition of intrinsically valuable is relative to your need.
The reason the desal plants got built was because of a quick fix mentality (and certain interests), what happened to the Wellington Dam idea?

Just read the above 2 comments, It would be far smarter to avoid centralizing everything in Perth for reasons beside water.

Awesome guys. Can't argue with intelligent design and conserving water use.