On May 20 19/8, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that there has been a very large increase in the area of cotton production in Queensland with cotton for ginning increasing from 15 tons in 19/7 to 55 tons in 19/8. In the year 1995/96 the value of cotton produced in Australia was $665 million and generated a further $2 billion to $35 billion in downstream processing and service industries. 809100f the cotton in 1995/96 was grown by irrigation. Australia is the driest settled continent. Periods of drought and flood are common features of a climate which is extremely variable and extremely unpredictable. The Royal Society of NSW has recorded that when the explorer Charles Sturt came to the Darling River in 1829 &quote;found the water was too salt to drink and that the water level was so low that they were able to walk over to the other side. &quote; Against this harsh setting the people of inland NSW have had to survive. History demonstrates that water storage construction has followed droughts and river flow failure attended by socio-economic stress which can be readily visualised