Very good early stage one that should be on the agenda Burdekin dam Hanrahan!
I ran into my friend today who worked with surveyor / hydrographer back in the seventies and i asked a few questions.
Sounded very exciting job using helicopters flying foxes etc .
He told me they run wires across rivers in the wet and lowered instruments down to measure the flows took surveys etc.
Now its was determined some of the rivers were unsuitable for damming the Ord was ok some rivers would die be silted because flows would become to ineffective to maintain the system healthy.
A barrage was built on the Fitzroy river which he worked at as well.
He thinks that skimming some of the water should be looked that's my friend not the hydrographer but the pumping systems should be some sort diaphragm type that can self pump? Using the waters own pressure
I think he said the barrage uses diesel pumps to lift into a dam i had never heard of a barrage before ?
Now the other thing he told me was that insect and birds are very major problems of huge scale to any farming activity !
Funily enough they are having success with rock melons etc .
The North is massive its potential is huge it needs population to overcome the insects and birds every area of Australia would have had this at some time .
I know the Australian bush fly does not like come in the house but like our green ants up this way wont either un less they need a drink.
But when growing up near Toowoomba the grandparents uncles and aunts used to pay the nephews grandkids to pop em off with slug guns and and shotguns if old enough .The flys would be horrendous all over your back riding not sure if they were the Aussie ones back then as we introduced species .
Of course it was the feral birds mostly although Galahs budgies etc were very prevalent as well. It took five years for the first cattle to travel overland to the Kimberly region from the east ?
Agronomists have made huge inroads into soil types etc
If you have any questions you would like ask my friend i will be glad to . He loves that country the land the people he originally comes from West Australia a lovely old man with a beautiful wife they are comming for dinner so enjoy your evening and keep those dreams alive the ord was first tabled back in the forties?
