Ok so what is the “Channel Country” and why are people excited? Lake Eyre (Kati-Thanda) is normally a dry salt lake in South Australia This is the Lake Eyre Basin as you can see it is a massive area of what is normally desert or at best semi arid landscape. But we have recently had a huge rainfall in northwest QLD and a fair bit of that water is flowing south to Lake Eyre Thing is the landscape is pretty flat so it doesn’t stay in the rivers by put spreads out across the landscape in “channels” hence the name “Channel Country” https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2...or-major-flooding-in-georgina-river/102110814 This is what it looks like The “red centre” will turn green and pelicans will flock to the rivers. Recently this fragile ecosystem has been under threat of being mined. But that has now been dropped and this could be one reason. The sheer volume of water that can flow would make mining somewhat problematic as we have seen when other mines have been flooded https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2...uts-organic-beef-production-at-risk/101294696 But the threat remains
With sea level rise this whole area down to Adelaide is predicted to be an inland sea. That sounds great.
I imagine that having water that far inland will completely terraform the interior of Australia. Besides, who cares about South Australians? I went to Adelaide a few years back and it looks like Perth in the 90s (but not the good parts of that). Not even South Australians like South Australians.
It changes it but not for long. Evaporation takes most of it. Over the years I have argued with multiple people about “why doesn’t Australia just dig a channel to Lake Eyre so that you can increase the rainfall to the interior parts of Aus and googling up answers to that was very educational! Leaving aside the whole “disruption of the ecology thing” the math does not work out. The evaporation rate is so high that it would take only a couple of years before you had a mile high block of salt! Plus evaporation over the lake does not increase local rainfall.
There probably does exist a way to artificially change the landscape by digging channels in a more orderly fashion more convenient for humans. Perhaps even directing the water into reservoir areas so that it can be stored and persist a longer period of time. You can read about use of swales in permaculture to transform dry desert areas into lush terrain that can support permanent plant life and small trees. You can also read about the elaborate system of traditional qanats that were dug in Afghanistan, underground rivers to carry water without evaporation. It was an ancient form of infrastructure, allowing civilization and agriculture in areas which otherwise would have had no water. Humans can use designs to improve nature.
Ha. I'm in South Australia at the moment. A friend of mine got back from Victoria just now and said "wow, Victoria is beautiful."
“Banjo” Patterson certainly knew the channel country having visited Winton many times. I always felt his iconic poem “Clancy of the Overflow” nailed the unique beauty of the area Clancy of the Overflow I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago, He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him, Just "on spec", addressed as follows, "Clancy, of The Overflow". And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected, (And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar) Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it: "Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are." In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the Western drovers go; As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing, For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know. And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars, And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars. I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall, And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street, And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting, Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet. And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste, With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy, For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste. And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy, Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go, While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal — But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of "The Overflow". https://allpoetry.com/Clancy-of-the-Overflow
With the water headed to Lake Eyre (Kati-thanda) hopefully the Lake will fill https://www.lakeeyreyc.com/ The yacht club will be in use again Apparently it is a bit more dangerous than people realise as the horizon can get “lost” in the reflection from the water
I'm not suggesting doing it, I'm suggesting it's the natural consequence of sea level rise combined with the altitude of the land.
The Great Artesian Basin is by definition a confined aquifer. It’s recharge comes from higher elevations in the Great Dividing Range. Water that ends up in the Erye basin recharges upper level unconfined local/regional aquifers, but can not penetrate into the Great Artesian Basin.
