Why didnt I know this 10 years ago??

[sunshinecoasting]

Wow….. could one just imagine if Australia had a cross continental canal system???
That would be an amazing inland cruise…..

That would be a 4000klm trench, about the same as NY to LA, get your shovel out now and start digging, I'd be interested. Having driven this country many times I can tell you it would be the worlds most boring sail, 90% of this land is flat and barren.

[NiceAft]

Yes, but P.T. Barnum said there is a sucker born every minute.

[dlandersson]

Sad but true - just look at all the Black Friday VPN commercials

Yes, but P.T. Barnum said there is a sucker born every minute.

[Sea Shadow]

Wow….. could one just imagine if Australia had a cross continental canal system???
That would be an amazing inland cruise…..

Unfortunately the centre of Australia is below sea level so if you put a canal in you would flood the place.

[NiceAft]

Wow….. could one just imagine if Australia had a cross continental canal system???
That would be an amazing inland cruise…..

Unfortunately the centre of Australia is below sea level so if you put a canal in you would flood the place.

Yes, but then you would offset sea level rise for the rest of us. For the better good and all mate.

[OverEasy]

Wow!
Wonder how big an inland salt water pond that would make???
How deep???

One could start with an east west canal and then depending upon how it fills up make branch canals to reach north and south as well!
Just think how much easier it would be to get around! No more long hot dry dusty roads but nice flowing salt water ways….

If done right it could look sorta like the Australian flag! Cool!

Hmmmm…. Wonder if that could be crowd sourced???

I recall there was once a proposal to make a canal system from the Atlantic to the Pacific across parts of Canada and the US…
Shhhhh! Better not say that last one out loud or Elon (&RWNCcompany ) might wanta give it a go as a moat….

[sunshinecoasting]

The darker green patch just right of centre is known as the Lake ayre basin, much of it is 15 meters below sea level so that would flood I presume, the rest is above sea level. It is normally a dry salt pan but does flood occasionally. 2 days after it floods it has pelicans sitting on it by the thousands, how the heck do they know it flooded? No one knows.

[kmclemore]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[OverEasy]

Hi Sunshinecoasting!

Hope you had a wonderful Holiday Season!

Smell. That’s how many bird species start looking for these transient places.
I believe that as basins like these dry up their salinity increases and the microbial life there have developed the ability to go into a form of dehydrated stasis. Then when rehydrated they “bloom” fairly rapidly releasing various gaseous byproducts…..that in turn are wafted by the winds. The wild life (birds in this case)follow the scent they associate with food.
Similarly to the microbial life there are little creatures like ‘brine shrimp’ that come out of their dehydrated stasis and rapidly go through their replicant life cycle. This composite cycle is fueled not only by the microbial growth and related life cycle but benefit from the bird digestive waste excretion as the birds feed upon the ‘shrimp like’ creatures leaving behind vital nutrients to perpetuate the cycle. (There is a lot more to all this but you get the gist of it as it being an evolved symbiotic cycle of adaptation. Pretty cool when you think about it!

You all have a fascination country with such widely diverse ecosystems! Enjoy!

Best Regards,
Over Easy

[sunshinecoasting]

Thanks Overeasy, that may very well be it, I'm not sure how they would smell it as Lake Eyre is in the middle of a desert 400 klm's from the nearest sea water but maybe they do? I recently studied microbiology at uni and learned a lot about microbial odour, I even discovered that the smell of the earth (you know when you dig in to it) is a chemical compound called Geosmin created by biological breakdown processes which can be detected miles away. But back to pelicans, I prefer to think they have tiny little cell phones under their wings and have far higher intelligence than we give them credit for.

(Wasnt this post about anchoring????)