THE Bradfield Party Irrigation Scheme is excruciatingly simple, according supporters of the long-standing and much-maligned project proposal.
The supporters, who operate The Bradfield Party page on X, say that with just one dam and one channel, multiple Sydney Harbours could be delivered to the Murray Darling system and put the Darling River into perpetual flow.
(In drought years, the Darling River becomes a series of billabongs, which turn toxic with blue-green algae and cause mass fish deaths)
The historical Bradfield Scheme proposes diverting water from the monsoon-fed rivers in tropical North Queensland that normally flow out to the Coral Sea, and pump or gravity-feed them inland across the Great Dividing Range to irrigate western Queensland and feed into Lake Eyre (Kati Thanda).
The scheme however, has met continued resistance from environmentalists, especially those who have captured key positions in the CSIRO and the Murray Darling Basin Authority.
The CSIRO, for instance, claimed that Dr John Bradfield’s original 1938 proposal relied on flawed formulas that overestimated available water by roughly double, while the MDBA views the Bradfield Scheme and its modern variants as “economically and environmentally unviable.”
Strangely, these bodies don’t oppose the horrifically expensive Snowy 2.0 project, that does not provide extra water for irrigators but maintains the MDBA’s ridiculous insistence on “environmental flows” that funnel huge amounts of water out to sea at the mouth of the Murray River in South Australia.
The Bradfield Party proposes a dam at 350 meters above sea level with a channel high in the valley (not the valley floor) keeping a slow, gravity-fed flow to supply Burdekin irrigators along the way and saving millions in pumping costs
Further south, where the Great Dividing Range (GDR) is lower, the channel crosses from the east to the west of the GDR at about 300m above sea level, before chasing levels all the way to St George and feeding into the Darling
The Upper Burdekin averages 45,000 gigalitres in its three flood months, but the scheme would harvest just 5% – sending 2,000 GL south to produce food, which in a drought year this represents a 30% increase for MDB irrigators.
It would be up to the states to use their share of the water where they liked, for instance, Queensland could chose to use their water to create new irrigation areas or to grow their existing areas.
NSW could choose to create new irrigation areas or bolster their current irrigators by simply allowing the Bradfield water to flow through to SA, thereby reducing the water that they need to release to SA.
Victoria could access its water by simply releasing less water to SA and making more water available to irrigators. “We strongly suggest the water is used upstream of the Barmah Choke to ease stress on it.”
The Bradfield Party says the scheme will provide great outcomes for Goulburn River irrigators in northeastern Victoria.
SA, meanwhile, would get a guaranteed increase of 500 GL per year and where NSW and Victoria used their water, this would have zero impact in SA – but a great impact on the Barmah Choke and forest on the Murray River near Echuca.
The main channel would have the added benefit of producing hydro power at key level changes at infrastructure points.
On the problem of introduced species, level changes at hydro points would provide 100% up steam migration barriers, while minor changes would make them 100% downstream.
The project supporters are planning to hold a national design competition for man-made waterholes along the 1000 km route of the scheme called Building the Best 200, which will provide drought relief for native flora and fauna.
“Lastly we build our first dam within a dam (upscaled permaculture) in the Hume to create the largest man made swamp in the world – a hugely productive natural environment.
