One important number from the Research Note is the pumping...

One important number from the Research Note is the pumping number of 75 million m3/year. This equates to a drawdown of around 0.5 metres on the surface of the lake.

Notes on resource and brine water flow testing from:

http://www.globalgw.com.au/lakedisappointment.html

Another paper states that the groundwater flow system is Large:

http://www.ga.gov.au/webtemp/image_cache/GA19878.pdf

One must assume [hope] that the initial pumping studies gave MR enough confidence to press on with this project.

This must be where the rubber hits the road as I can not find any other issue that would be a road block.