Comments by "Winston Smith" (@kryts27) on "Australia's Water Project Failure: An Economic Breakdown" video.

  1. Typical political jerrymandering, particularly from the unimaginative, conservative and crony ridden Nationalist Party (coalition with the Liberals), helped create the white elephant which is the Ord River Scheme. The area is underpopulated, so little in the way of transport infrastructure (e.g. roads and rail) are there, let alone large towns. In comparison, with the North Queenland coastal strip (South of Cairns), where sugar cane farming, banana, mango and pawpaw planations are long established, ongoing and profitable and the area (for north Queensland) is quite well populated with established roads, rail networks (for the sugar cane as well), substantial towns and a large commericial port at Townsville. That makes all the difference in costs for the primary producers. The mantra for the Ord River Scheme was; "build it and they will come". Well, it was built but comparatively few people wanted to take up land for cultivation in such a remote place; so they didn't come.
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