Just to inform you, lake Ayre was going to be flooded with seawater back in 1920 a Chanel was going to be dugout from Port Augusta SA this was ultimately scrapped by commonwealth government and the Snowy Mountain hydroelectric system was elected to go ahead, engineers markers are still in place where the channel was to go through, had they’d gone through with the project, our weather system would be a lot wetter today and certainly greener
@@petersguazzato8291 I have heard that if the flooding of Lake Eyre proceeded as planned in 1920, then there would have been flooding of much more than just Lake Eyre. I can't recall the actual amount,(40% of central Australia?) but some very vast areas of central Australia, (not just the dry lakes) would have been almost certain to fill with sea water as well, if they could not control the flow from Port Augusta. Much of central Australia is also below sea level. A watery disaster was averted even though it seemed good on paper initially, to flood this area.
Darwin-Kathryne Is in the wet tropics. The Gulf of Carpentaria coast is mostly tropical savannah and extends south to Mount Isa. Lake Eyre is part of the larger great artesian basin, fed by many rivers and springs creating Oasis of rainforests and billabongs. The great Artisian basin is recharged by the western slopes of the northern great dividing ranges. So the outback is hot and dry, but its also much greener than foreigners think. I hope my point makes sense.😊😊
I've flown over Lake Eyre ( pronounced "air" ) when it was full of water in 2011. About once a decade it fills up when there has been unseasonal rain in the interior and the dry river beds become raging torrents. It was a spectacular sight. It was quite shallow and there was lots of bird life, particularly pelicans. It was really worth seeing.
the rain to which you refer is actually seasonal. After ever drought there is always exceptionally heavy rain (which occurs once a decade, on average) The Millenium drought was a once in century or perhaps even once in a millenium, as it lasted a solid 15 years or more, that drought broke many farmers and agribusinesses, and caused a lot of suicides.
boost your country's immigration then? i can literally see geraldton wa could be the second los angeles with more nice weather and beaches if it were to have the same population size
I think our country is a bit dumb coz northern territory is super close to asia that it could attract more people to settle here. California? Really far from asia. But nt? Is super close to asia! How dumb it is? Also massive desalination would benefit our future water needs! From brisbane btw
@@Prananta_A it's not as easy as like that. We don't wanna break our country like what they did in the US. Horrendous immigration policy! Just keep it this way because I like it serene and NO MORE BURDENS! Because we already have lots of burdens here in Melbourne! But if they were drawn to places like Geraldton or Albany..... I'm okay with that as long as they don't come to this already crowded Melbourne!
I grew up in a small town in Western Australia, if you looked at it on a map you’d think there was heaps of little lakes all around, but it’s all just salt flats 😅
@@L6FT In Esperance mostly groundwater, though rainwater is easily collected in rural areas, as it is a pretty wet climate. Kalgoorlie has its water pumped 600km from the hills of the capital city, Perth. Perth used to get all of its water from dams and groundwater, however due to population growth, and a falling rainfall we are getting a lot from a couple of desalination plants
@@emceeboogieboots1608 yep what they said! It’s mostly pumped up from Perth and goes down the Golden Pipeline to Kalgoorlie, servicing all the smaller towns in between (one of which I grew up in)
Having lived (and travelled extensively) in both dry Australia and (much) wetter Canada, it's always been a bit of a joke to say that they DO have lots of lakes (and rivers) in Australia, but (unlike in Canada) there's no presumption they actually have any water in them. And it's not just in the outback: even in the eastern states near the coast, there are lovely lakes that are primarily characterized by the sheep grazing on them...
The map at 1:14 is wrong! The north-eastern part is mostly tropical rainforest, not to mention the wet season in the whole north; so, it cannot be considered arid or even semi-arid.
Yes the North East actually contains some locations with the highest rainfall in the county. Take Tully for example that receives over 4000mm (>160 inches) on average, higher than any location in the mainland of the US
Darwin is not tropical rainforest, its tropical savannah, a surprisingly small amount of NQL is actually rainforest, more like NT, Mangrove swap and tropical desert almost.
After a good wet season the outback comes to life in an amazing way. Green grass sprouts, wildflowers amazingly appear as if out of nowhere, fauna such as kangaroo, emu and wallabies arrive, and a great profusion of birdlife in huge flocks. A great variety of lizards and frogs that lay dormant underground for long periods awaiting the big wet too. Even pelicans that seem to be programmed know to make the flights to these rejuvenated bodies of water. Deep down below the surface lies the Great Australian Artesian Basin. A huge body of water that cattle stations (ranches) pump up to enable them to survive life in the outback. It has its own unique beauty that draws many to seek out a lifestyle in the outback. Even the Flying Doctor plays a role in servicing outback communities along with commercial airways, railways and road haulage. It's charming, exciting and hot! And these days it's becoming more tourist friendly too.
Australia could hugely mitigate the drought conditions by building a tidal canal or pipeline linking the Southern Ocean to Lake Eyre, thus permanently flooding the latter to sea level.
I swear, Australia is actually not just a barren land. It has a mountain range and even an Alpine climate classification when you go to places like Thredbo which is a ski resort.
Lake Eyre is -17m. There was a plan in the 1930s to fill it with sea water to improve the interior climate and make rain. The problem is there is a range of hills in the way of the sea.
I came to Australia as a 20 year old and I am now 81. One curiosity of mine is that every time in the last 60 years that I came across a story about just how "arid, dry and waterless" Australia is, there is always a region within Australia the size of, say, an entire European country, flooded under metres of water. Additionally, like an enormous sprinkler system, the monsoon rains inundate the vast northern half of the continent during the summer when the southern half is usually in drought. Where does all that precious water go? This led me to believe that Australia suffers more from a lack of water managers than from a lack of water.
You forgot Great Bear and Great Slave lake the are both in the northwest territories in Canada. I can see them on your map they are bigger than the lakes you referenced.
Australianeed railway connectivity: From Perth vi Geraldton-Carnarvon-Karratha-Port Headland- Broome to Derby. And then from Townsville-Mount Isa-Tennant Creek, and Katherine-Kununurra-Wyndham-Halls Creek-Fitzroy Crossing-Derby. Finally Longreach-Boudarie, Charleville-Birdsville-Boudarie-Alice Springs-Warburton-Wiluna-Meekatharra-Carnarvon. Carnarvon, produce 75% of all fruits and vegetables for Western Australia. Yet is not connected with Perth by railway line. I call this tyranny of stinginess.
Here’s some additional info: Australia only has one major river system, the Murray-Darling, on the Western side of the Great Dividing Range. While its drainage basin is quite large, it doesn’t carry much water compared to other major rivers. So much of it is diverted to agriculture and supporting the population that it often never reaches the sea, as its mouth becomes blocked by sand and sediment. During extreme drought, parts of it can dry up completely. The rainfall in the north east and east of the country is heavily influenced by the Southern Oscillation Index, with La Niña events causing most of the heavy rainfall and El Niño coinciding with drought. Flooding can be a major problem on the East Coast during La Niña events. When heavy rainfall does make it over the Great Dividing Range, the Murray-Darling can also experience severe and prolonged flooding. The topography being so flat means the water drains slowly. The area that drains into Lake Eyre is vast. It covers much of the interior of the State of Queensland, which is Australia’s second largest state and on its own larger than most countries. When Lake Eyre does fill, it attracts large numbers of migratory birds. The early colonists believed there must be an inland sea, or large lakes, somewhere in the interior, and several major expeditions were mounted in an attempt to find it. Needless to say, they were bitterly disappointed. The Northern parts of the continent are tropical, and have wet and dry seasons like other tropical regions. They have the most predictable rainfall, but it’s unevenly distributed. Those are also some of the least developed and populated parts of the country. Every now and then, some politician, business leader, or think tank floats the idea of trying to develop large scale agriculture in the northern tropics, to take advantage of the more reliable rainfall, and every single time the scientific studies say it isn’t viable. This has been going on for almost a century.
@@tisyaa4294 Most likely due to the ridiculously monsoonal nature of the rainfall (bone dry dry season, biblical rainfall during the wet), and even more so due to the soil conditions. The soils there are very old, heavily eroded, and thus devoid of nutrients and very sandy, sometimes even full of stuff like heavy metals. The soil conditions combined with the highly seasonal rainfall is just terrible for agriculture. In the tropical parts of Queensland with less pronounced dry season and more recent volcanic soils, such as the Atherton tablelands and the surrounding areas, agriculture is quite productive.
@@TaLeng2023 Not impossible. Depending on where you want to send the water, the cost could be very high. And you would need to build dam/s to store the water, because of the wet and dry seasons.
@@tisyaa4294 Agriculture is increasing in the North. Mainly higher value crops (tropical fruits and Asian vegetables) because of the high transport costs. Don't forget that "greenfield" development also has associated costs.
It took forever to hear the real story and then the most important points were fumbled. The movement of the continent occurred on a different time frame from human habitation. The "melting of glaciers" to create lakes was emphasized instead of the movement from the much colder, wetter climate of the glacial age giving way to the warmer, drier conditions of today.
At 7:25, it feels weird that Geoff doesn't mention Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake, which are much larger than most of the "great lakes" that he's listing. Odd omission.
@@TheRetroGuy2000 I believe he was basing it off human impact. I’d imagine those lower lakes tend to be used more by canadians who tend to live further south. (please mistake me if I’m wrong I’m hypothesizing and no little about Canadian geography this is just my best guess)
Australias westerlies only effect southern victoria and Tasmania year round, most of the aistralian mainland has summer easterlies, with westerlies effecting the southern half in winter. Australia is dry inland because the hreat diciding range blocks those easterlies from carrying water further inland.
There is one great lake in Australia, however it is man made. Lake Argyle is the largest fresh water lake in Australia. A quick zoom into the Northern part of Western Australia on Google Maps will immediately show this amazing feature with a recent, but fascinating history.
This video should be titled, '50 different ways to say that the Australian lakes shown on google maps are no longer lakes, but are instead dry salt flats. They are still shown on the map because they are prominent features of the landscape in both the past and present'. This had more filler than a 10 page high school essay.
It seems that Geoff is saying that Google maps pictures aren’t real and that Australia relies on pictures from Google to decide if they are really lakes. Sorry Geoff, it’s not climate change.
..well thay can technically be called salt lakes i assume then .. but usually whats considered a lake is a body of water, but technically doesent nessesarly have to be water at all, or even a fluid at normal temerature and pressure .. ex titans liquid lakes of methane
@@emceeboogieboots1608 read between the lines. If you follow him, which I do, you might know his agenda on this. I do think most of his geography is entertaining and informative, but sometimes the agenda leaks through. Just take a look at some of the other comments from the natives on here.
@mikedougherty2243 Well, he did say that the lakes dried up as Australia drifted northward over eons, so not really much to dispute there. But I haven't looked at any of his other videos
I wonder how many desalination plants it would take to fill up a man made lake? Maybe Australia should start a project to refill those dried up lakes somehow. Link a few desalination plants together and put it in a pipeline to the lake.
I think you are making an error when talking about prehistoric humans being around these lakes, when they were lakes, while saying it was the moving of Australia northwards (away from Antarctica) that led to the lakes drying up. These timeframes don't match up. I'm pretty sure Australia has mostly been where it is now for as long as there has been humans. It might be true that it took awhile for the lakes to eventually dry up, all the way up to prehistoric human time periods, but I don't think both were going on at the same time (drastic move northwards of Australia and humans populating these ancient, ephemeral lakes).
Summation found in the last 3 minutes or 30 seconds. Australia once had great lakes, but due it's migration northward over eons into the subtropic desert zone, they only appear once in a while, and are mainly salt plains.
Exactly, further i dont know why he keeps blaming Google maps while the satellite images on the map clearly show these lakes are dry - www.google.com/maps/place/Kati+Thanda-Lake+Eyre+National+Park/@-30.0163574,138.5300528,642075m/
With the melting arctic circle, the decrease in salinity is causing the gulf stream to disappear (the desal plants and solar in notth africa couldve helped). My question to the people listening: what would the melting ice caps do to the "subtropical high pressure belt" (2:40m into the video)? Adding to this, the rising sea levels also means more evaporation and thus rain...
This area of Australia is similar to parts of the Mojave Desert in Southern California. The Fort Irwin Military Reservation in San Bernardino County has several dry lakes that will sometimes fill up partway with rainwater or snowmelt runoff from nearby mountains. Otherwise they are bone dry alkali flats most of the time.
It would be awesome if you would add or say the periods of time when talking about the changes happening. It was a bit confusing when it stated that populations lived near the lakes, but then the continent shifted... didn't the continent shift millions of years ago, well before populations lived there?
Are salt lakes always flat bottomed? There's lots of mineral salt in the N.A. great lakes region, if they somehow dried up would they leave salty floors? Or do salt "flats" only develop on flat bottomed, shallow salty water lakes? Is the bottom layers of fresh water lakes a brine solution? Thanks Geoff! 😃 great video cheers from Newfoundland where i guess, here on the island our biggest lake is probably Gander lake but the Meelpeag, grand and Beothuk are all big-ish
It's what the Salton Sea used to be in the 19th C., seldom having water in it, till early in the 20th C. when Colorado River water got diverted into it and it filled. Instead of letting it dry out, the lake was maintained at a constant depth till quite late in the last century. Beach towns on the lake are now deserted. Contrast it to what the Aral Sea is like, only the Aral was constantly replenished naturally until the USSR diverted the water. It too is drying up like the Salton Sea.
SA is the driest state, Lake Eyre typically has water, just the level changes. The water levels use to be much higher, seashells are found in the sides of mountains.. sea-snails and cockles seem to make the biology, or at least their ancestors.. haven't seen a local fish fossil IRL yet
Living in Adelaide, you definitely get a feel for how South and Western Australia could develop with a bit more population density! The climate and wide-open landscapes do have a similar vibe to California and Arizona, with all that potential for vibrant cities and desert life. With a few million more people, who knows what kind of transformation could happen-maybe we'd see bustling hubs and more sprawling coastal developments like the U.S. Southwest! 😄
I live on the tip of the spencer golf in a town of port augusta its the town of the tip of the sa coast they call my town the gateway. Its an okey town lots of salt lakes because there was a lake many years ago obviously lol.
went to uluru a couple years ago in the summer (wet season) and the entire simpsons desert and i got caught in a 1km wide flood that was a few metres deep. a truck had gotten half sunk in it
Hi Geoff. Can you make a vid about how the rocks/sediments in Grand Canyon came from the Appalachian Mountains?? It is something almost no American knows, namely that eastern seaboard rivers drained into the western ocean, bringing all the sediments over 2000 miles to Arizona
There's a few problems with this theory. 1. Rainforests don't really care what line of latitude they are at, as they recycle 100% of their own water. There's rainforests at pretty much every non-arctic line of latitude. 2. Australia may be the fastest moving continent, but attributing this to continental drift over a human timescale seems too fast. The continent may have moved over 2,800 miles since the first human arrival, but it's still over 2000 miles from Darwin to Cape York. That leaves quite a bit of desertified Australian land that isn't at subtropical latitude. If you account for these facts, and also take into account the fields of opalized wood, indicative of fire a very long time ago, it seems like the desertification was caused by aboriginals burning the whole thing down as a form of hunting and/or megafauna control. They set massive fires and because no outside rain was coming in to replenish what water evaporated, the rainforests could not regrow, leading to widespread desertification.
Approximately only 10% of Australia is considered inhabitable due to its dry climate. The rest is habitable although the landmass consists of deserts, dry grasslands, and sparse scrublands that are challenging for sustained agriculture and urban development, it is by no means inhabitable.
You forgot Lake Argyle. Which although is the result of a dam is still notable. It contains 9 times the volume of water as Sydney harbour! Look beyond Google maps.
Such a shame to see creators I used to respect jumping back onto the Better Help bandwagon. What could've been a fairly informative video about an often under looked part of the world is ruined by someone trying to grift their viewers. What makes things worse is claiming to need help with your mental health while encouraging viewers to try out a service that is infamous for damaging people's mental health. Shame on you Geoff.
@@KanishQQuotes I’m in complete support of mass transit, but people have to want to use it. That being said, I think Aussies would love to use an inland ocean for recreation and be very grateful for the climatic protection it would give vs wildfires
Dude go look at Lake Argyll, sure its man-made but its mostly full almost year round and gets fed by the tropical wet season in the top end which is NOT dry and barren! Take a look at a satellite map of Australia in February and you will where the true dry interior actually is and actually the southern coast is almost the driest because the southern ocean doesnt deliver the moisture there in enough volume unlike the tropical north which gets meters of rain ever summer
As the freshwater supplies stopped, the drying lakes became more concentrated. The result was salt lakes sitting in endorheic basins, similar to the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Those basins eventually dried up leaving behind the salt flats. As obvious as this sounded to me at first. I'm glad you asked that. It would have been some excellent material for him to put into the script instead of repeating himself many times that they simply dried up.
@@duB420Grass but jeff declared they were fresh lakes are you saying he is incorrect? he must be mistaken no amount of fresh water leaves salt flats behind
@@friendoengus Even most fresh water has small amounts of salt and other dissolved minerals. When a _lot_ of water dries up over a long period of time, these get concentrated.
Really lack of mountains is the crux of it. Had Australia kept it's large interior mountains (larger than the Himalayas) it would be a completely different place. Irrespective of the weather patterns you can't ignore physics. Moubtains trap moisture and promote rainfall. Coastal mountains like great dividing range, Andes or The Sourhern Alps in NZ cause rain shadows. Had the GDR been further inland the green eastern coast would stretch further in. I'm not too sure how the west coast would be afcet by the ancient central mountain range.
Our lakes did not go anywhere; they are mostly ephemeral, meaning they only have water when there is a lot of flooding in Queensland and northern New South Wales. Then the lakes fill and billions on bird arrive on them to breed. Some of these birds go as far as New Zealand.
Clicked off the video as soon as I heard the BetterHelp portion. I know that sponsorships are often necessary for youtubers who wish to keep creating, but you have the responsibility to make sure the product you're selling is at least useless and not actively harmful. Do better.
The Aboriginals burnt down the great rainforest which was the water source for the northern territory and the great lakes in the south. It took thousands of years but they finally did it it was one of the largest rainforests of its time it had its own Cloud seeding and it carved out the middle of Australia this is been heavily researched in the past it changed the climate of Australia.
The lack of young towering mountains means there is little opportunity for snow melt or glacial runoff…. Do ya really think it’s gonna snow in the outback?
Makes me wonder if we could build large inflatible, artificial mountains. Or hang a big cold flat pannel in the atmosphere, that could help condense more rain up there. 😊
This really did feel like the youtube version of one of those documentaries where they tell you one piece of information, go to an ad break, repeat it, hit another ad break, repeat it, and get nowhere. I don't know why I put myself through the torture of watching it, but you covered 5 novel points (high estimate) in the span of 16 minutes and I gained nothing from the epxerience. This could have been better summarised in a 30s tiktok.
Tropical North Queensland is the polar opposite of the outback, its extremely green, forested and lush with plenty of water.
Just to inform you, lake Ayre was going to be flooded with seawater back in 1920 a Chanel was going to be dugout from Port Augusta SA this was ultimately scrapped by commonwealth government and the Snowy Mountain hydroelectric system was elected to go ahead, engineers markers are still in place where the channel was to go through, had they’d gone through with the project, our weather system would be a lot wetter today and certainly greener
Adding to my comment, apparently lake Ayre is 5 times that of Sydney harbor and 47 metres below sea level
@@petersguazzato8291 I have heard that if the flooding of Lake Eyre proceeded as planned in 1920, then there would have been flooding of much more than just Lake Eyre. I can't recall the actual amount,(40% of central Australia?) but some very vast areas of central Australia, (not just the dry lakes) would have been almost certain to fill with sea water as well, if they could not control the flow from Port Augusta. Much of central Australia is also below sea level. A watery disaster was averted even though it seemed good on paper initially, to flood this area.
@@johnhaller7017 That doesnt sound bad.
@@prolarka would completely destroy australias ecosystem and send thousands of species into extinction
@@prolarka what a hater
Darwin-Kathryne Is in the wet tropics. The Gulf of Carpentaria coast is mostly tropical savannah and extends south to Mount Isa. Lake Eyre is part of the larger great artesian basin, fed by many rivers and springs creating Oasis of rainforests and billabongs. The great Artisian basin is recharged by the western slopes of the northern great dividing ranges. So the outback is hot and dry, but its also much greener than foreigners think. I hope my point makes sense.😊😊
I've flown over Lake Eyre ( pronounced "air" ) when it was full of water in 2011. About once a decade it fills up when there has been unseasonal rain in the interior and the dry river beds become raging torrents.
It was a spectacular sight. It was quite shallow and there was lots of bird life, particularly pelicans.
It was really worth seeing.
the rain to which you refer is actually seasonal. After ever drought there is always exceptionally heavy rain (which occurs once a decade, on average) The Millenium drought was a once in century or perhaps even once in a millenium, as it lasted a solid 15 years or more, that drought broke many farmers and agribusinesses, and caused a lot of suicides.
@hiramhackenbacker9096 I remembered the circle is about every 7 years or so. It's definitely not a decade.
Live in Adelaide. South and Western Australian states could have been like California or Arizona if we had more people😂
boost your country's immigration then? i can literally see geraldton wa could be the second los angeles with more nice weather and beaches if it were to have the same population size
@@Prananta_Athey have invited hoards of Pakistanis who were deported from UK and Canada
I think our country is a bit dumb coz northern territory is super close to asia that it could attract more people to settle here. California? Really far from asia. But nt? Is super close to asia! How dumb it is? Also massive desalination would benefit our future water needs! From brisbane btw
@@Prananta_A it's not as easy as like that. We don't wanna break our country like what they did in the US. Horrendous immigration policy! Just keep it this way because I like it serene and NO MORE BURDENS! Because we already have lots of burdens here in Melbourne! But if they were drawn to places like Geraldton or Albany..... I'm okay with that as long as they don't come to this already crowded Melbourne!
Nah, keep it quiet and peaceful. High populations are overrated, and good times are ALWAYS when labor is a seller's market.
That's mountains, rainforest, and a biodiverse coastline in the northeastern section of the land you highlighted and called "dry interior".
I was thinking the same thing
Yeah really cringe, the top end is proper wet and very green
@@ashdog236 This guy doesn't know anything about anywhere other than North America.
He keeps repeating the same stuff, just padding his videos, bro sounds like he is reading GPT chat script....
I grew up in a small town in Western Australia, if you looked at it on a map you’d think there was heaps of little lakes all around, but it’s all just salt flats 😅
Yeah, I grew up in Esperance and Kalgoorlie. Some freshish water around Esperance, but that changes once you pass Gibson
How do you guys get water, and what did you live on?
@@L6FT In Esperance mostly groundwater, though rainwater is easily collected in rural areas, as it is a pretty wet climate.
Kalgoorlie has its water pumped 600km from the hills of the capital city, Perth. Perth used to get all of its water from dams and groundwater, however due to population growth, and a falling rainfall we are getting a lot from a couple of desalination plants
@@emceeboogieboots1608 yep what they said! It’s mostly pumped up from Perth and goes down the Golden Pipeline to Kalgoorlie, servicing all the smaller towns in between (one of which I grew up in)
Having lived (and travelled extensively) in both dry Australia and (much) wetter Canada, it's always been a bit of a joke to say that they DO have lots of lakes (and rivers) in Australia, but (unlike in Canada) there's no presumption they actually have any water in them.
And it's not just in the outback: even in the eastern states near the coast, there are lovely lakes that are primarily characterized by the sheep grazing on them...
The map at 1:14 is wrong! The north-eastern part is mostly tropical rainforest, not to mention the wet season in the whole north; so, it cannot be considered arid or even semi-arid.
sean and dave made sure i remembered
Was about to point this out
Yes the North East actually contains some locations with the highest rainfall in the county. Take Tully for example that receives over 4000mm (>160 inches) on average, higher than any location in the mainland of the US
He kinda implied this when he demonstrated the dry zones
@@davidfrew1518 yep, northern NT and FNQ are hardly dry!
Northern Australia is actually tropical forest
Darwin is not tropical rainforest, its tropical savannah, a surprisingly small amount of NQL is actually rainforest, more like NT, Mangrove swap and tropical desert almost.
The subtropical line was much higher than it should have been I'm sure
About 5% of it maybe
North Australia sees more rain than most places in the world
@@Power_Prawnstar cairns.. it’s one of two true tropical rain forests and the oldest tropical rain forest.
Amazon is the other
After a good wet season the outback comes to life in an amazing way. Green grass sprouts, wildflowers amazingly appear as if out of
nowhere, fauna such as kangaroo, emu and wallabies arrive, and a great profusion of birdlife in huge flocks. A great variety of lizards
and frogs that lay dormant underground for long periods awaiting the big wet too. Even pelicans that seem to be programmed know to make
the flights to these rejuvenated bodies of water. Deep down below the surface lies the Great Australian Artesian Basin. A huge body of
water that cattle stations (ranches) pump up to enable them to survive life in the outback. It has its own unique beauty that draws many
to seek out a lifestyle in the outback. Even the Flying Doctor plays a role in servicing outback communities along with commercial airways,
railways and road haulage. It's charming, exciting and hot! And these days it's becoming more tourist friendly too.
Australia could hugely mitigate the drought conditions by building a tidal canal or pipeline linking the Southern Ocean to Lake Eyre, thus permanently flooding the latter to sea level.
I swear, Australia is actually not just a barren land. It has a mountain range and even an Alpine climate classification when you go to places like Thredbo which is a ski resort.
No way it desert I fight roos now
Lake Eyre is -17m. There was a plan in the 1930s to fill it with sea water to improve the interior climate and make rain. The problem is there is a range of hills in the way of the sea.
Hellsgate might do a better job, no point compounding the salinity issue.
@@MrBoliao98Good idea 💡
Nowadays tunnel boring machines can do the trick
@@ianhomerpura8937 lay a pipe line. A 24” pipe can move a lot of water
I think there would be too much green tape to ever get a project like that done unfortunately
@0:28 the simple answer to that question is lakes Eyre and Torrens are relatively shallow lakes, and lose a lot of water through evaporation.
It's interesting that you included the Daintree rainforest, one of the wettest parts of the country in your map showing the driest areas.
As a famous Australian said, "...Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence..!"
I came to Australia as a 20 year old and I am now 81. One curiosity of mine is that every time in the last 60 years that I came across a story about just how "arid, dry and waterless" Australia is, there is always a region within Australia the size of, say, an entire European country, flooded under metres of water. Additionally, like an enormous sprinkler system, the monsoon rains inundate the vast northern half of the continent during the summer when the southern half is usually in drought. Where does all that precious water go? This led me to believe that Australia suffers more from a lack of water managers than from a lack of water.
@@trumbettier9252 most of it evaporates
Exactly, if water catchment systems were created and used to irrigate native ecosystems then the outback could be massively reduced.
NZ should give us Lake Taupo because they don't really need it.
In your wildest dreams 😂
Not sure you'd want a supervolcano in your backyard...
@@StuffandThings_ We'll just take the water. NZ can keep the volcano. Thanks!!! 😊👍
We could exchange it with lessons on how to drive a warship? That's a fair swap yeah? 😂
Australia’s great lakes went the way of the NZ Navy.
You forgot Great Bear and Great Slave lake the are both in the northwest territories in Canada. I can see them on your map they are bigger than the lakes you referenced.
I noticed him skip it and figured that he didn't want to say Great Slave Lake on youtube.
Australianeed railway connectivity: From Perth vi Geraldton-Carnarvon-Karratha-Port Headland- Broome to Derby. And then from Townsville-Mount Isa-Tennant Creek, and Katherine-Kununurra-Wyndham-Halls Creek-Fitzroy Crossing-Derby. Finally Longreach-Boudarie, Charleville-Birdsville-Boudarie-Alice Springs-Warburton-Wiluna-Meekatharra-Carnarvon. Carnarvon, produce 75% of all fruits and vegetables for Western Australia. Yet is not connected with Perth by railway line. I call this tyranny of stinginess.
7:26 This is the first time I am introduced to this lake, Winnigosis sounded like some sort of disease
Here’s some additional info:
Australia only has one major river system, the Murray-Darling, on the Western side of the Great Dividing Range. While its drainage basin is quite large, it doesn’t carry much water compared to other major rivers. So much of it is diverted to agriculture and supporting the population that it often never reaches the sea, as its mouth becomes blocked by sand and sediment. During extreme drought, parts of it can dry up completely.
The rainfall in the north east and east of the country is heavily influenced by the Southern Oscillation Index, with La Niña events causing most of the heavy rainfall and El Niño coinciding with drought. Flooding can be a major problem on the East Coast during La Niña events.
When heavy rainfall does make it over the Great Dividing Range, the Murray-Darling can also experience severe and prolonged flooding. The topography being so flat means the water drains slowly.
The area that drains into Lake Eyre is vast. It covers much of the interior of the State of Queensland, which is Australia’s second largest state and on its own larger than most countries.
When Lake Eyre does fill, it attracts large numbers of migratory birds.
The early colonists believed there must be an inland sea, or large lakes, somewhere in the interior, and several major expeditions were mounted in an attempt to find it. Needless to say, they were bitterly disappointed.
The Northern parts of the continent are tropical, and have wet and dry seasons like other tropical regions. They have the most predictable rainfall, but it’s unevenly distributed. Those are also some of the least developed and populated parts of the country.
Every now and then, some politician, business leader, or think tank floats the idea of trying to develop large scale agriculture in the northern tropics, to take advantage of the more reliable rainfall, and every single time the scientific studies say it isn’t viable. This has been going on for almost a century.
Is it not possible to bring that tropical rainwater into other parts of the country?
So interesting. Thank you!
@@tisyaa4294 Most likely due to the ridiculously monsoonal nature of the rainfall (bone dry dry season, biblical rainfall during the wet), and even more so due to the soil conditions. The soils there are very old, heavily eroded, and thus devoid of nutrients and very sandy, sometimes even full of stuff like heavy metals. The soil conditions combined with the highly seasonal rainfall is just terrible for agriculture.
In the tropical parts of Queensland with less pronounced dry season and more recent volcanic soils, such as the Atherton tablelands and the surrounding areas, agriculture is quite productive.
@@TaLeng2023 Not impossible. Depending on where you want to send the water, the cost could be very high. And you would need to build dam/s to store the water, because of the wet and dry seasons.
@@tisyaa4294 Agriculture is increasing in the North. Mainly higher value crops (tropical fruits and Asian vegetables) because of the high transport costs. Don't forget that "greenfield" development also has associated costs.
It took forever to hear the real story and then the most important points were fumbled. The movement of the continent occurred on a different time frame from human habitation. The "melting of glaciers" to create lakes was emphasized instead of the movement from the much colder, wetter climate of the glacial age giving way to the warmer, drier conditions of today.
At 7:25, it feels weird that Geoff doesn't mention Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake, which are much larger than most of the "great lakes" that he's listing. Odd omission.
@@TheRetroGuy2000 I believe he was basing it off human impact. I’d imagine those lower lakes tend to be used more by canadians who tend to live further south. (please mistake me if I’m wrong I’m hypothesizing and no little about Canadian geography this is just my best guess)
Less lakes less Crocs
* Looks at rain puddle *
" ITS A BLOODY 30 FOOTER SALTY MATE" 🤣🤣🤣
Make an inland sea on those salty dried lakes. More evaporation and moisture in the air, more fish, and more salt-water farms to be made.
how do you suggest such a terraforming project be carried out?
@@NoVisionGuy I don't think you realise the distance between the coast and lake Eyre. It's a LOOOONG way. Over 400km
Australias westerlies only effect southern victoria and Tasmania year round, most of the aistralian mainland has summer easterlies, with westerlies effecting the southern half in winter. Australia is dry inland because the hreat diciding range blocks those easterlies from carrying water further inland.
There is one great lake in Australia, however it is man made. Lake Argyle is the largest fresh water lake in Australia. A quick zoom into the Northern part of Western Australia on Google Maps will immediately show this amazing feature with a recent, but fascinating history.
@@skippymaster57 they should have spent money on hellsgate.
This video should be titled, '50 different ways to say that the Australian lakes shown on google maps are no longer lakes, but are instead dry salt flats. They are still shown on the map because they are prominent features of the landscape in both the past and present'.
This had more filler than a 10 page high school essay.
It seems that Geoff is saying that Google maps pictures aren’t real and that Australia relies on pictures from Google to decide if they are really lakes. Sorry Geoff, it’s not climate change.
..well thay can technically be called salt lakes i assume then .. but usually whats considered a lake is a body of water, but technically doesent nessesarly have to be water at all, or even a fluid at normal temerature and pressure .. ex titans liquid lakes of methane
@@mikedougherty2243He didn't say it was climate change. Just that it is climate. Or at least it was change over geological timeframes
@@emceeboogieboots1608 read between the lines. If you follow him, which I do, you might know his agenda on this. I do think most of his geography is entertaining and informative, but sometimes the agenda leaks through. Just take a look at some of the other comments from the natives on here.
@mikedougherty2243 Well, he did say that the lakes dried up as Australia drifted northward over eons, so not really much to dispute there. But I haven't looked at any of his other videos
America's Great Lakes are really freshwater seas, with extensive dune systems, sandy beaches, waves, and rip currents, Lake Michigan especially.
I wonder how many desalination plants it would take to fill up a man made lake? Maybe Australia should start a project to refill those dried up lakes somehow. Link a few desalination plants together and put it in a pipeline to the lake.
I think you are making an error when talking about prehistoric humans being around these lakes, when they were lakes, while saying it was the moving of Australia northwards (away from Antarctica) that led to the lakes drying up. These timeframes don't match up. I'm pretty sure Australia has mostly been where it is now for as long as there has been humans. It might be true that it took awhile for the lakes to eventually dry up, all the way up to prehistoric human time periods, but I don't think both were going on at the same time (drastic move northwards of Australia and humans populating these ancient, ephemeral lakes).
We love the outback flat dry & quiet - very Australian.
Australia has the Great Artisan Basin largest source of fresh water underground in the world covering most Queensland Big part N Territory NSW.
Man this video could be cut down to 5 minutes. Maybe mention how the lakes are on Google maps again
He’s trying to convince us to not believe our eyes when we see it on “Google Maps” 😂. Climate pusher!
yeah clicking off the video at 5 minute mark because the video has the same density of information as a skibidi toilet video
Summation found in the last 3 minutes or 30 seconds.
Australia once had great lakes, but due it's migration northward over eons into the subtropic desert zone, they only appear once in a while, and are mainly salt plains.
Exactly, further i dont know why he keeps blaming Google maps while the satellite images on the map clearly show these lakes are dry - www.google.com/maps/place/Kati+Thanda-Lake+Eyre+National+Park/@-30.0163574,138.5300528,642075m/
With the melting arctic circle, the decrease in salinity is causing the gulf stream to disappear (the desal plants and solar in notth africa couldve helped). My question to the people listening: what would the melting ice caps do to the "subtropical high pressure belt" (2:40m into the video)?
Adding to this, the rising sea levels also means more evaporation and thus rain...
Thanks for what you do.
I'm Australian - and i'm learning things.
Thank you
When the monsoon trough comes down over the top end every summer, they actually get a lot of rain pus a few of cyclones.
This area of Australia is similar to parts of the Mojave Desert in Southern California. The Fort Irwin Military Reservation in San Bernardino County has several dry lakes that will sometimes fill up partway with rainwater or snowmelt runoff from nearby mountains. Otherwise they are bone dry alkali flats most of the time.
I never been to a great lake. But I did visit a lake with a waterfall in my town when I was little.
Why are all the states in the Northeast so small except for New York, Pennsylvania and Maine? That should be your next video.
They should of just made New England one state tbh and Boston would be the capital more than likely.
:D Excellent presentation!. It's worth thinking about the Finke River - the oldest river in the planet.
I live at Uluru man, was really well done, cheers
Evaporation 25 inches, is much higher than rainfall. 16 inches.
Ezi pezi.
As an Australian aboriginal trying to learn our past this is extremely insightful. Legend
I used to be a driller in Central Australia looking for gold. The great artesian basin in some places is about 1 meter under the surface.😊
It would be awesome if you would add or say the periods of time when talking about the changes happening. It was a bit confusing when it stated that populations lived near the lakes, but then the continent shifted... didn't the continent shift millions of years ago, well before populations lived there?
Nah, it's easier to just claim it was climate change and move on, at least he didn't spend 5 minutes complaining about how native lands were stolen
Are salt lakes always flat bottomed? There's lots of mineral salt in the N.A. great lakes region, if they somehow dried up would they leave salty floors? Or do salt "flats" only develop on flat bottomed, shallow salty water lakes? Is the bottom layers of fresh water lakes a brine solution? Thanks Geoff! 😃 great video cheers from Newfoundland where i guess, here on the island our biggest lake is probably Gander lake but the Meelpeag, grand and Beothuk are all big-ish
It's what the Salton Sea used to be in the 19th C., seldom having water in it, till early in the 20th C. when Colorado River water got diverted into it and it filled. Instead of letting it dry out, the lake was maintained at a constant depth till quite late in the last century. Beach towns on the lake are now deserted. Contrast it to what the Aral Sea is like, only the Aral was constantly replenished naturally until the USSR diverted the water. It too is drying up like the Salton Sea.
Love your show. Over here - Down Under - we pronounce Lake Eyre as 'Lake Air'. I know, not written that way, but that is how we pronounce it.
Indeed, it's pronounced like the title of the Charlotte Brontë novel _Jane Eyre_ .
"Its dry for good reason, its very large and very dry". Wow that was informative
SA is the driest state, Lake Eyre typically has water, just the level changes. The water levels use to be much higher, seashells are found in the sides of mountains.. sea-snails and cockles seem to make the biology, or at least their ancestors.. haven't seen a local fish fossil IRL yet
Living in Adelaide, you definitely get a feel for how South and Western Australia could develop with a bit more population density! The climate and wide-open landscapes do have a similar vibe to California and Arizona, with all that potential for vibrant cities and desert life. With a few million more people, who knows what kind of transformation could happen-maybe we'd see bustling hubs and more sprawling coastal developments like the U.S. Southwest! 😄
Lake Eyre is pronounced like lake air
Geoff has a habit of repeating himself.
It's so off-putting and time wasting I can barely watch his channel anymore, despite the interesting content.
Exactly!!!
Video time padding probably
Could you repeat, I didn't catch that the first time.
Please pronounce Eyre as "air" Geoff, thanks :)
And how do you Australians pronounce _Lake Frome_ , out of curiosity?
In England, it's pronounced "froom."
@@grantorino2325 Good call, Australian's probably mispronounce it. (family from Frome, Somerset, btw)
@@grantorino2325 Let's check with Ralph Fiennes, he'll know.
@@grantorino2325 like ‘foam’ but with an R :)
"Prominent on maps, but in reality they're dry salt flats" hardest diss on a lake ive ever heard 🔥🔥🔥🔥
I live on the tip of the spencer golf in a town of port augusta its the town of the tip of the sa coast they call my town the gateway. Its an okey town lots of salt lakes because there was a lake many years ago obviously lol.
went to uluru a couple years ago in the summer (wet season) and the entire simpsons desert and i got caught in a 1km wide flood that was a few metres deep. a truck had gotten half sunk in it
Australia is like the Mars of planet Earth without the massive Volcano's 🌋
Hi Geoff. Can you make a vid about how the rocks/sediments in Grand Canyon came from the Appalachian Mountains?? It is something almost no American knows, namely that eastern seaboard rivers drained into the western ocean, bringing all the sediments over 2000 miles to Arizona
There's a few problems with this theory.
1. Rainforests don't really care what line of latitude they are at, as they recycle 100% of their own water. There's rainforests at pretty much every non-arctic line of latitude.
2. Australia may be the fastest moving continent, but attributing this to continental drift over a human timescale seems too fast. The continent may have moved over 2,800 miles since the first human arrival, but it's still over 2000 miles from Darwin to Cape York. That leaves quite a bit of desertified Australian land that isn't at subtropical latitude.
If you account for these facts, and also take into account the fields of opalized wood, indicative of fire a very long time ago, it seems like the desertification was caused by aboriginals burning the whole thing down as a form of hunting and/or megafauna control. They set massive fires and because no outside rain was coming in to replenish what water evaporated, the rainforests could not regrow, leading to widespread desertification.
Don't forget the Great Salt Lake, Tahoe and Okeechobee in Florida.
Approximately only 10% of Australia is considered inhabitable due to its dry climate. The rest is habitable although the landmass consists of deserts, dry grasslands, and sparse scrublands that are challenging for sustained agriculture and urban development, it is by no means inhabitable.
You forgot Lake Argyle. Which although is the result of a dam is still notable. It contains 9 times the volume of water as Sydney harbour!
Look beyond Google maps.
Lake Eyre still gets water every few years, wasn't that long ago that it filled up.
It is not most of the year the lakes are dry, it is most years. Lake Eyre fills about every 30 years.
Such a shame to see creators I used to respect jumping back onto the Better Help bandwagon. What could've been a fairly informative video about an often under looked part of the world is ruined by someone trying to grift their viewers. What makes things worse is claiming to need help with your mental health while encouraging viewers to try out a service that is infamous for damaging people's mental health. Shame on you Geoff.
@@shakeelali20 he could not know.
Short answer: all the dinosaur farts led to global warming, and it all evaporated.
I just loled at how many times I've apparently cheated death crossing the outback 😂
Can we not build an inland sea in Australia yet?
They can't even build decent transit system
@@KanishQQuotes I’m in complete support of mass transit, but people have to want to use it. That being said, I think Aussies would love to use an inland ocean for recreation and be very grateful for the climatic protection it would give vs wildfires
We could have many years ago... not a snowflakes chance in hell it would get past environmental laws or get the OK from the indigenous today
@@robmeagher2443 how were you gonna do that? From an engineering perspective?
Interesting but overly repetitive.
It sounds like you use chatgpt to generate your script 😂
Maybe if you had played it before you up-loaded it you would realise how many repeats it contains. Apart from all the repeats, some good information.
No mention of the Great Lakes in Tasmania?
Dude go look at Lake Argyll, sure its man-made but its mostly full almost year round and gets fed by the tropical wet season in the top end which is NOT dry and barren! Take a look at a satellite map of Australia in February and you will where the true dry interior actually is and actually the southern coast is almost the driest because the southern ocean doesnt deliver the moisture there in enough volume unlike the tropical north which gets meters of rain ever summer
what a waste of my time smh. video starts around 13:00 for future reference by future me
@@ground.jordan legend
the great lakes of australia were freshwater, then dried up, leaving salt flats?
how does that work?
As the freshwater supplies stopped, the drying lakes became more concentrated. The result was salt lakes sitting in endorheic basins, similar to the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Those basins eventually dried up leaving behind the salt flats.
As obvious as this sounded to me at first. I'm glad you asked that. It would have been some excellent material for him to put into the script instead of repeating himself many times that they simply dried up.
@@duB420Grass
but jeff declared they were fresh lakes
are you saying he is incorrect?
he must be mistaken
no amount of fresh water leaves salt flats behind
@@friendoengus Even most fresh water has small amounts of salt and other dissolved minerals. When a _lot_ of water dries up over a long period of time, these get concentrated.
@@AaronOfMpls
thank you!
now i get it
so freshwater is not _absolutely_ fresh
@@friendoengus Yup, it will dissolve at least a little bit from the ground it runs over and through.
Really lack of mountains is the crux of it. Had Australia kept it's large interior mountains (larger than the Himalayas) it would be a completely different place.
Irrespective of the weather patterns you can't ignore physics. Moubtains trap moisture and promote rainfall.
Coastal mountains like great dividing range, Andes or The Sourhern Alps in NZ cause rain shadows.
Had the GDR been further inland the green eastern coast would stretch further in.
I'm not too sure how the west coast would be afcet by the ancient central mountain range.
Our lakes did not go anywhere; they are mostly ephemeral, meaning they only have water when there is a lot of flooding in Queensland and northern New South Wales. Then the lakes fill and billions on bird arrive on them to breed. Some of these birds go as far as New Zealand.
Clicked off the video as soon as I heard the BetterHelp portion. I know that sponsorships are often necessary for youtubers who wish to keep creating, but you have the responsibility to make sure the product you're selling is at least useless and not actively harmful. Do better.
When you show the 70% of Australia that is considered the outback, this area holds only 5% of the Australian population.
The Aboriginals burnt down the great rainforest which was the water source for the northern territory and the great lakes in the south. It took thousands of years but they finally did it it was one of the largest rainforests of its time it had its own Cloud seeding and it carved out the middle of Australia this is been heavily researched in the past it changed the climate of Australia.
Northern Qld and NT are not dry half it's very tropical, it's when you go more inland
3:14 Australia has a face!
The lack of young towering mountains means there is little opportunity for snow melt or glacial runoff…. Do ya really think it’s gonna snow in the outback?
👍👍
Australia needs to dig a canal from the NT to the middle of the continent.
The Gippsland lakes are pretty big
I live underground in the
out back , the world is an amazing place
Makes me wonder if we could build large inflatible, artificial mountains. Or hang a big cold flat pannel in the atmosphere, that could help condense more rain up there. 😊
This really did feel like the youtube version of one of those documentaries where they tell you one piece of information, go to an ad break, repeat it, hit another ad break, repeat it, and get nowhere.
I don't know why I put myself through the torture of watching it, but you covered 5 novel points (high estimate) in the span of 16 minutes and I gained nothing from the epxerience.
This could have been better summarised in a 30s tiktok.
Me: ⬆️💨 vibing to the background music
Geoff: Humans won’t stop messing up everything
Are you the voice actor for Amazon Hazmat video with box guy? You sound exactly like the dude
We used it all making beer
I love this Deadly Desert))
Australian here. Can confirm, a lake is not a lake
Low CO2 is a big factor but that means greenhouse earth climate, instead of ice house earth climate like now