Published Resources Details
Journal Article
- Title
- Australian water resources, with particular reference to water supplies in Central Australia
- In
- Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia
- Imprint
- vol. 18, no. 3, Mar 1946, pp. 51-61
- Description
This paper, No. 874, originated in the Melbourne Division of The Institution, and was presented before a General Meeting of the Division on 31st October, 1944.
Part I of the paper, 'Australia's water resources' is published herein in full, but only an abstract of Part II, 'Water supplies in Central Australia', is included.
The author, J. D. Lang, MCE AMIEAust, is an Assistant Engineer, in the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, Victoria
- Abstract
The potentialities of Australia's vast "Inland," together with schemes for its development, have received considerable publicity during the past few years. Occupation of the country's tropical north by Allied Forces has necessitated the construction and maintenance of lines of communication across the very heart of the continent, while the attention given to these communications by the popular press has resulted in Australia's "man in the street" being very much aware of his country's empty spaces.
All writers and speakers on the Inland have recognised WATER as the governing factor of all human existence and activities, as well as the key to any developmental programme which might be attempted. It is not intended to suggest by this that a plentiful supply of water will automatically solve all problems, but rather that the importance of its provision and proper utilization should secure for it the foremost place on the list of problems to be solved.
Schemes suggested at various times for watering the arid areas of Australia have been many and varied. One of the oldest and oft-repeated schemes proposes flooding of the low-lying area around Lake Eyre - either from the sea or from fresh water sources - in the hope that evaporation from such an inland sea would not only increase the rainfall of surrounding regions, but completely change the arid climate now found there.
The most recent proposal was to supply water to the parched plains by spraying it nightly from flying boats ! More orthodox schemes have not been neglected, but those within the bounds of possibility have received little publicity. The majority of schemes suggested have concerned either the tropical northern regions of large but erratic and seasonal rainfall, or else the arid "Central Basin," extending from Central Queensland to Lake Eyre in South Australia.It is proposed in Part I of this paper to deal in a general way with the water resources of Australia as a whole. Part II will consider in some detail the water problem of Central Australia. Throughout the course of the paper it will be found that statements and maps have been generalised to a degree which may appear to contradict the experience of those who might have a detailed knowledge of some particular locality or region. To such persons, the author would point out that this has been necessary in order to present, within the limits of one paper, a picture of the many factors affecting Australia's water resources, as well as the nature and limitations of those resources. No attempt has been made to provide a complete treatise on the subject, but rather is it intended that this paper should serve as an introduction.
Related Published resources
isCitedBy
- Nimmo, W. H. R., 'Presidential address [1949] - The World's water supply, and Australia's portion of it', Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 21 (3) (1949), 29-34. Details