Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Australia's Water Project Failure: An Economic Breakdown" video.

  1. Actually its bullshit. Ord river's early days were a bust because they went for cotton, which is easily one of the most damaging crops on the planet. Ask the Russians about the Aral Sea. But this is all based on old information. In recent decades they switched towards vegetables and melons to supply demand in Asia and that stuff has been incredibly profitable. I know that because one of my previous neighbors was a seed merchant who did business in the Ord. Seedless water melons and tomatoes make huge money out of the ord. Also my brother used to work for VISY ad they have a huge division in Darwin selling packaging into that market.
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  2.  @geoffmesser5091  fair comments. The crop I have concern about is cotton. There's the new cotton which is one of the greatest achievements in ag science ever. It would have been great if they could have reduced the water needed, or the chemicals needed or improved the fiber quality. Doing 1 of those would have been great but they did all 3. The problem is that its now incredibly profitable which is what has driven the madness in the Murray-Darling. I'm an engineer and this is part of my argument about our long term planning. We don't think long term in our engineering which includes our infrastructure (like Ord). Everything is about the next quarter or next season. As a nation we need to start being a lot smarter in every industry we have. I actually started in aerospace and after the new Space Agency started their 1st road map had as its first item - advanced space based water management but delivered in the mid 2030s. So I put forward a proposal to move on it now and try and deliver that in 3-5 years. You should have seen the panic I created. I said to the ASA - "these are your words lets not wait until somebody else hands it too us lets just get on with it." And they freaked out. Feedback form the Farmers Fed was positive but the ASA stomped on me. My mothers family are farmers so I have been around farming and ag since I was born. From the day it started Landline was compulsory viewing in my family. Before that Big Country.
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  3. Actually its bullshit. Ord river's early days were a bust because they went for cotton, which is easily one of the most damaging crops on the planet. Ask the Russians about the Aral Sea. But this is all based on old information. In recent decades they switched towards vegetables and melons to supply demand in Asia and that stuff has been incredibly profitable. I know that because one of my previous neighbors was a seed merchant who did business in the Ord. Seedless water melons and tomatoes make huge money out of the ord. Also my brother used to work for VISY ad they have a huge division in Darwin selling packaging into that market.
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  4. Its far more difficult than just simply a road or rail project. I actually spent 9 months up that way on a mine site during the mining boom. It amazed me how little I actually knew about Australia's far north and how the place works and what the conditions are like. Most Australians have no idea what its actually like. The distances and conditions are so radically different to the southern states. You can't just simply build roads and rail up there because of the wet season. I was there through a wet season and its just so different to anything else I'd ever experienced and it included a cyclone. At one point everything was under 30-50cm of water which made the entire place lethally dangerous because of the snakes and crocs. Then there are the current issues with the over use of ground water in other parts of that region. People have been putting in mango plantations and mangoes need water 365 days a year. That can be difficult in a place where it rains for 6 months and then doesn't rain for another 6 months.
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  5. I've heard some people make comments on Australia and this is easily one of the worst. The Ord River Scheme has been an extraordinary success. Yeah it had failures with cotton but then cotton has failed in so many places that its almost considered an economic suicide crop. Go ask the Russians about the Aral Sea on that one. Its staggering just how badly some people put out crap on YouTube. You need to do more than just look up Wikipedia and take what's there without any further research. There's an idiotic claim there about only 260 jobs, which is total BS because it only includes jobs on the farms. It doesn't include the sorting, packaging and export related jobs. I know how big that business is because my brother used to work for VISY one of the main suppliers into the packaging. Also your claims on particular crops which is just plain wrong doesn't include the huge cash crops of melons, tomatoes and other vegetables that are exported to Asia. I know about those because one of my previous neighbors was a seed merchant whose main business was in the Ord River Scheme. He once showed me a bag of tomato seed that cost more per kilogram than cocaine. If you actually knew anything about Australia its our other major water scheme "The Murray-Darling" which is one of the worst cases of government water resource mismanagement anywhere on the planet. Its a national embarrassment ad disgrace.
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  6.  @thedave7760  Dude a scouting party is not an invasion.
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