Bradfield Scheme

The Bradfield Scheme was devised by Dr John Job Crew Bradfield (1867-1943), a Queensland born civil engineer, who also designed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the Brisbane Story Bridge. The inland irrigation project that Dr Bradfield proposed, was designed to irrigate and drought-proof much of the Queensland interior, as well as large areas of South Australia. The scheme would require large pipes, tunnels, pumps and dams.

The scheme involved the diverting of water from the upper reaches of the Johnson, Tully, Herbert, Burdekin and Flinders rivers. These Queensland rivers are fed by the monsoon, and currently flow out into the ocean. The water would enter the Thomson River on the other side of the Great Dividing Range and eventually flow south west to Lake Eyre.

Benefits

Controlling and reducing the flow of northern rivers into the ocean may benefit the Great Barrier Reef as fresh water causes coral bleaching, and the excess nutrients in the rivers from coastal farming and development, are toxic to the reef. The scheme would reduce the massive natural erosion problems in areas of Central Queensland.

Extra water and vegetation in the interior may then produce changes to the climate of Australia. This may increase the rainfall in areas of Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales. Extra rainfall would drought-proof Eastern Queensland; and thereby improve river inflows into the Murray-Darling River system. This in turn would drought-proof much of New South Wales and Victoria.

upport

This scheme was seen during World War II and much of the twentieth century, as an essential step in building a secure and prosperous nation. It was regarded as the next great water engineering project to build after the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

A modified scheme was strongly supported on this site by an independent candidate at the last Australian senate election in Queensland. [http://www.johnston-independent.com/bradfield_scheme.html] Revised Bradfield schemes are being assessed, and may include damming and running the Nicholson and Leichhardt Rivers in the Gulf of Carpentaria, into the Flinders River, as well as the rivers proposed by Bradfield.

Objections

Objections to the scheme involve:
* The high cost
* The extreme evaporation rate in the interior
* Coastal developments now use much more water than earlier leaving a smaller surplus to divert
* It is only speculation that a climate change would result. Saudi Arabia, which is very dry, is surrounded by seas containing far more water that an enhanced river would provide.

ee also

*Goldfields Water Supply Scheme
*Irrigation in Australia
*Ord River Irrigation Scheme

External links

* [http://www.naa.gov.au/education/activities/jaw/watering/1908765_pg31.html Bradfield Map]