What he may not have heard properly addressed is the freshwater lake will kill all saltwater species in the former estuary, may create conditions for algal blooms, shift the natural flocculation zone downstream to Long Reach and shut down the hydraulic mechanism that maintains the channel dimensions in Long Reach, Bell Bay and downstream.

The tidal prism upstream of Point Rapid is well in excess of 100 million cubic metres according to robust studies, which equates to a mean in/outflow of ~4600 cubic metres per second over the 6 hours of tidal rise/fall. This is -45 to 60 times that of the South and North Esk River flows. Such a massive (that is -98 per cent) reduction in flow downstream of the barrage may seem a benefit, but it means the virtual elimination of the channel flushing mechanism.

Sand from offshore not to mention now locally generated silt will settle in the flow 'vacuum' .

It seems to me this proposal is driven by some 'chocolate box' picture of a calm, placid lake rather than the dynamic, tidal estuary we now have.

This sort of world view seems to me to resonate with the idea set out in the movie Stepford Wives where 'troublesome' females are lobotomised/robotised to make them constantly pretty and compliant as if that were the only issue.

In similar vein, thalidomide eliminated morning sickness just like the marketing spin said it would, but it was soon very apparent that was hardly the issue either.

Frankly, creating a lobotomised waterway, a “Lake Stepford”, just to cure the “morning sickness” of natural turbidity has a whiff of whiskey and cigars about it.

For the record I am not a “greenie”, was not fussed about the pulp mill, am a climate change skeptic and have an engineering degree involving fluid mechanics.

THE Legislative Council is a house of review. It doesn’t initiate legislation, but reviews what the lower house has passed. These reviews must take into account the will of the electorate.

At the recent state election the government was soundly returned with the majority of votes in each of the five electorates.

Voters now expect the government’s legislative program to be put in place over the next four years.

Those in the Legislative Council inclined to deny government legislation need to do so only after taking views of their electorates into consideration.

Party membership in the Legislative Council is anathema to most electors who don’t want party-decided decisions, but electorate-based decisions.

Party membership in this house is destroying the house’s primary purpose to review on the merits any legislation.

STEVE Saunders letter concerning Christianity and science speaks many true things concerning science, but scant truth concerning Christ.  Far from being imaginary Jesus walked upon this earth and the Gospels are the record of these events as witnessed by those who were there.  

Steve is free to call all of these things imaginary, but he is by his own admission unscientific to do so.  He is not therefore defending science so much as defending his right to not believe Christ and to scoff at religions in general.  

The reason he has these beliefs he does not disclose, but by the tone of his letter they seem to be deep and the cause of much bitterness in him.  Seeing the state of the church, in all its unsavoury diversity, in this world you can well understand why.

AFTER many tears enjoying playing cricket s an opening bowler, I always knew the condition of the ball.

Now that the news of Channel Seven are taking the coverage of Australian cricket, I do hope they start with a clean plate.

As everyone already knows the three culprits who blackened the image and honour of all Australians around the world, by being called cheats, has to be fixed now.

I just find it hard to believe that a few others in the team didn’t know what was going on.

I am hoping the leaders of Australian cricket gives us a clean and honest team to be proud of in the future, or resign themselves.

JUST reading a book about Henry VIII and the similarities to Donald Trump are amazing.

Henry failed to heed advice from his ministers and changed his mind from one minute to the next so that all around him had no idea what he was going to do next.

Sound familiar?

It seems the king was blind to his own failings and deaf to counsel.

If Donald is a reincarnation, then God help America and the rest of us.

I MUST say that I thoroughly enjoy the comic strip Zits.

So much of it brings back memories of when our children were teenagers.

In particular I recall the huge drop in our power and grocery bills when they fled the nest, especially my son, who held regular LAN parties in our family room with a group of friends.

This invariably included raids on the pantry and fry ups for breakfast etc after a weekend all night session.

When he left to follow his own route through life our food bill dropped by over $50 a week.