NSW farmer Mike Moses is championing a scheme that could sure up water supply in drought stricken areas of western parts of the state for years to come. It’s been coined ‘The Burdekin-Murray Scheme’.
Mike’s property is at Willow Tree on the upper reaches of the Liverpool plains. Like many other farmers, Mike was hit hard by the drought and in his own words, ‘it was the worst drought by far’. Access to water has always been an enormously important issue for farmers, but especially now as climate change and other factors threaten the future and livelihood of rural and regional Australia in a way never before experienced.
The plan is to harvest otherwise wasted water that discharges over the top of Australia’s largest dam at Lake Dalrymple in Queensland and direct it down through the foodbowls west of the Great Dividing Range. The spillage from the Burdekin Dam, during the wet season, can fill up to five Sydney Harbour’s a day. This wasted water often floods the Burdekin Plain before taking huge amounts of soil and nutrients out to the Great Barrier Reef, slowly killing the reef.
The Burdekin/Murray scheme has vast potential to reinvigorate struggling industries , like cotton, and help towns and communities secure their precious water resources. You can listen to the full conversation here:
