Contested time and space!

Description

A painting is taken from a blurry satellite image of part of Far North Queensland. Part of an area designated as a potential export and local “Food Bowl”. In 1998 we travelled through the Western Australia area reported upon and in 2016 through the Far North Queensland areas. On both occasions, these areas were spoken about in glowing terms as being able to develop a “Food Bowl” for South-East Asia (green and clean) and for Australia. Before these visits and since there have been many reports alluding to the opportunities for such agricultural economic development and benefits go along with such development.

In 2018 the CSIRO presented a report Northern Australia Water Resource Assessment, taking in Far North Queensland and Far North Western Australia. Many have spoken about massive infrastructure, multiple dames, piping to the south, container ports, employment, housing and development. Most have not been acted upon in any meaningful way. These development programs and proposals have raised multiple differences of opinion, many of which relate to issues of economic and environmental issues: including sustainability, land suitability, climate change, land rights, multi-State downstream issues and employment. This painting illustrates one small section under advanced irrigation. The colours green and blue illustrate the “rose coloured” development view. The black and purple represent possible degradation of the environment. Arguably these areas have potential, but they are and have been contested on many points. Climate change is certainly the elephant in the room!