Latest study on Bradfield scheme in Queensland again concludes proposal doesn’t hold water

Despite repeated reviews of John Bradfield's idea to use flood waters to irrigate central Australia, the scheme has not been shown to be feasible

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A Queensland government study into the feasibility of the Bradfield water scheme has reached the same conclusion as previous studies from 1947, 1982, 2004 and 2020 - that diverting flood waters inland is not viable.

John Bradfield, the engineer who built the Sydney Harbour Bridge, devised the scheme in 1938. Bradfield thought he could irrigate the interior and change the arid climate of central Australia by building a series of dams and diverting northern flood waters to the west of the Great Dividing Range.

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