To the best of my knowledge, the water rarely ever made it to any irrigation ................... it either went out over the flood plain of the Paroo or ended up in lakes, swamps and billabongs.
Yes some might have made its way to some cropping but it was so irregular to make the money paid for the water quite rhidiculous.
Irrigation on a commercial scale needs consistent water. Opportunistic flows that give a once in 5 or 10 year cropping opportunity are a lottery and should be treated as such.
