It is incredibly unfair that there has still been no suggestion of reduction of Cubby water licenses when Barwon Darling licenses have been reduced by approx 65 percent with NO compensation.. no need to buy this water . just steal it as has happened to people down stream .. if Cubby is sold with a guarantee of full water license entitlement there is something terribly wrong with our Governments one rule for one other rule for others attitude and a great opportunity to put more water back into the Murray Darling system will have been lost... Trev

This is one water licence that should be bought out by the government. It has an appalling affect on the rest of the Murray Darling Basin. It's about time Federal government took over all water licences from the states as water is a national, not a state issue. Rivers don't stop at state boundaries!

Could someone explain to Trev and maybalene that the Qld portion of the Darling system is nowhere near as overallocated as the NSW portion is. So the fact that Cubbie involves a large portion of that lesser allocation does not make it fair game for down stream plodders on the make. Queensland accounts for only 5% of the natural flow in the Darling system so the capture of part of that 5% means absolute jack for downstream ecology. And even if Cubbie water was released the South Australians would only use it for evaporation from a former tidal estuary. It would not produce a single dollar in export income and, wouldn't create a single job. And it wouldn't do a thing to restore the prawn and Mulloway stocks that were destroyed by the stupid barrage.

The Cubbie water storage method, of vast areas of shallow dams, is a highly flawed method of farm water storage, as evaporation takes 90% of the useable stored water. This area would lose 2M of water to evaporation annually, and I understand that most Cubbie storage is only around 2.5M deep. The only way that Cubbie and its vast water storage could be made economic, is if some method of seriously reducing evaporation was instigated, such as covering the water in some manner, to reduce wind and sun access to it.

Thanks, Ed. And while raw pan evaporation is 2 m a year, the storage also collects half a metre of rain on top each year for a net 1.5m. Cubbie storage is also large enough to produce its own microclimatic impacts. Whenever the surrounding land is fully irrigated the real evaporation rate declines to about 1.3m. And of course, they use most of their water within a year of storing it, thereby minimising evaporation losses.

Thats crap Ian. That water would do untold good for graziers and the environment on its way down to the mouth. 5% of the Darlings total flow taken in one foul swoop is a hell of a lot of water.

No, fridgimus, get your facts right. According to Land & Water Audit 2000, total runoff in the Murray Darling is 23,850GL while runoff from the Condamine Balonne is only 1,500GL (6.3%). And of this 1500GL only 379GL (25%) is diverted. In contrast, NSW diverts 52% of its runoff and Victoria diverts 41%. The total Qld runoff into the Darling (ie Border Rivers etc) is 3104GL from which only 584GL (19%) is diverted while the total NSW runoff into the Darling is 3,974GL from which 1,646GL (41.4%) is diverted. So if fridgimus and his venal southern mates have a problem then it is all of their own making. And the plodders just can't get it through their foggy brains that Cubbie station doesn't account for even half of QLD diversions. It should also be pointed out that a system of turkey nest dams like Cubbie's allows for water to be concentrated in fewer storages as total storage volumes decline. So evaporation from the empty storages is zero. There is no such system in the Menindee Lakes, Lake Victoria or indeed, Lake Alexandrina, where total depth is less than 3 metres and more than half the total storage can be evaporated in a single season.

So the Cubbie Group doesn't account for even half of QLD Diversions??? One private company with the ability to divert that much water is obscene. I will stand by my original comment.

I'm sorry fridgimus. But exactly what is wrong with one private company utilising economies of scale to provide local employment and produce local raw materials? Your statement is pure traffic light.

Well, well, water is a touchy point, when there is very little to share around. Cubbie has water licences and can fill their storages to the brim WHEN there is rain, when there is no rain they are empty and guess what, they can't farm. People need to understand rain will fix the problem.