Chapter 720 Lake Eyre Canal Plan

In the next period of time, the biggest news in the United States should be the establishment of a new country. ✎

After the establishment of the two kingdoms was left to the government, Arthur was once again free.

There have been huge changes over time.

At present, short-term stability should be won, and Arthur has also set his sights on construction in the economic crisis.

Yes, although Australasia has not suffered much from the economic crisis, construction cannot stop during the economic crisis.

Only by continuously launching large-scale construction can we attract more white immigrants from Europe and the Americas to fill the population of Australasia.

Of course, as the population has exceeded 3 Asia, the demand for population is not so drastic.

The impact is that the immigration department's review of immigrants has become more stringent, and the inspection period required for immigrants has also been extended from three months to six months to half a year to one year.

This also means that even immigrants who perform well will have to wait until half a year at the earliest to obtain Australasian citizenship.

Those who fail the immigration review or inspection period will be forcibly deported and will not be allowed to apply for immigration within three years.

This also prevents other countries from sending large numbers of intelligence workers to Australasia.

Although the world situation seems peaceful, the spy agents and intelligence work in the dark are already fighting fiercely.

The Australasian Intelligence Service captures and vets at least hundreds of intelligence workers every year. The best outcome for them is to be deported and permanently banned from entering Australasia.

As for those discovered during intelligence work, they will basically be executed on the spot by the intelligence agencies.

This is also acquiesced by all countries. Once intelligence personnel are discovered, they can only be dealt with by others.

On the premise that the dispatch of intelligence workers cannot be openly admitted, sacrificing the interests of intelligence personnel to protect the country's reputation is the best outcome.

The war was over, and several of the construction projects Arthur had decided on could finally begin.

In fact, since the beginning of the economic crisis, Australasia has launched several relatively large-scale construction projects and has made good progress.

And the current large-scale construction that Arthur is talking about is naturally an even bigger project than before.

The first project to be finalized was the plan to build a canal connecting Lake Eyre to the ocean.

To be honest, even Arthur had to make up his mind for a long time before launching this canal project, and Arthur did not know whether the Lake Eyre Canal project would ultimately be a complete success.

Because even in later generations, there was no precedent for a large canal connecting an inland lake and the ocean like the Lake Eyre Canal. No one knew whether such a canal could succeed.

After all, the main function of the canal is to save time on the road, as well as shipping and shipping, etc.

But the role of the Lake Eyre Canal is more to fill Lake Eyre with water, irrigate and moisten the entire Great Artesian Basin.

The benefit of this is that there is a high probability that the Great Artesian Basin will be activated, giving Australasia a huge green basin covering an area of ​​millions of square kilometers.

As long as the canal plan succeeds, the entire eastern part of Australia will become a habitable area, and Australia's population capacity will be increased to 200 to 300 million people.

Of course, such a huge Grand Canal plan must go through a long period of investigation before the project is launched.

Long before the economic crisis broke out, the Cabinet Government had considered plans to build a Lake Eyre canal.

But such a huge project can only be started with Arthur's initiative, because no one can bear the consequences of project failure.

After careful consideration, Arthur decided to start the construction project of the Lake Eyre Canal.

Relying on Arthur's high reputation, even if the canal is built in the future without much results, it will not cause dissatisfaction among the people.

If the government promotes it, the results will be good. If it has no effect, the people may directly ask the parliament to remove the government on the pretext of wasting people and wasting money.

The reason why Arthur is determined to promote the Lake Eyre Canal plan is that in addition to the Lake Eyre Canal's potential to activate the entire Great Artesian Basin, there is also the unique nature of Lake Eyre.

It can be seen from the topographic map that the Lake Eyre Canal is definitely the heart of the central plains of Australia and is also a very important source of water resources for the entire Great Artesian Basin.

This inland lake, known as the heart of death, is not completely dead.

According to records of Lake Eyre, the water in Lake Eyre will fill up 3 to 4 times on average every 100 years.

It is this Lake Eyre water that can only be encountered once every 20 years that keeps the environment around Lake Eyre from being too bad.

Especially 100 years ago now, the Great Artesian Basin has not completely drained of water, and the surrounding area of ​​Lake Eyre has not been completely deserted.

Another very important reason is that Lake Eyre itself is a saline-alkali lake, so there is no need to worry about the impact of the inflow of seawater on the environment around Lake Eyre.

Seawater cannot actually nourish the land because the salt content in seawater is too high and can even affect the growth of plants.

But the environment of Lake Eyre is quite special. Even the salt content in the water of Lake Eyre is much higher than that of sea water.

Even such high salinity did not affect the growth of plants. This is why Arthur is optimistic that Lake Eyre can regain its vitality after the canal is connected to the sea.

So the question is, why is a lake near the edge of the Great Artesian Basin said to be the heart of the entire Great Artesian Basin?

In fact, the real reason why Lake Eyre was formed is because many rivers flow into Lake Eyre.

However, due to the large number of desert areas in Western Australia, the evaporation of Lake Eyre is much higher than that of other inland lakes.

Even the water in some rivers has been evaporated and dried up before it reaches Lake Eyre.

If Lake Eyre can have abundant water resources all year round, the higher temperatures will quickly evaporate the water, and then turn this water vapor into much-needed rainwater for the entire Great Artesian Basin, feeding back the basin that has excessively lost water resources.

There are two monsoon wind directions in Australia, one is the southeast wind that is more common in winter, and the other is the northwest wind that is more common in summer.

Judging from the geographical location of Lake Eyre, if Lake Eyre can be filled with seawater, it can even benefit southeastern Australia and make the Murray River Basin, which is currently being vigorously constructed by the government, more abundant in water resources.

With so many benefits, some risks and disadvantages are completely bearable.

Under Arthur's orders, 1, the Lake Eyre Canal plan was officially launched.

The entire canal plan will be divided into three sections, namely the ten-kilometer northern canal connecting north and south Lake Eyre, the central canal connecting south Lake Eyre and Lake Torrens, and the canal connecting Lake Torrens and Spencer Bay. Southern Canal.

Among them, the northern canal has the shortest mileage, and the central canal is expected to be the longest, with an estimated length of 70 to 75 kilometers. The southern canal is in the middle and is expected to be 60 to 65 kilometers long.

The total length of the canal that needs to be dug is less than 150 kilometers, which is longer than the Kiel Canal built by the Germans, but far shorter than the Suez Canal that connects the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.

Because the terrain of Lake Eyre is lower than the ocean, this also means that the construction of the canal can be easily completed. As long as the canal is built, seawater will naturally flow into Lake Eyre without the need for any other auxiliary facilities.

After determining the expected length of the canal, the next thing to determine is the width of the canal.

Although shipping will be opened after the canal is completed, it will only transport mineral resources in the central part of the country.

This also means that the demand for shipping in the Lake Eyre Canal is not high, and the width and depth of the canal naturally do not need to be as huge as the Suez Canal.

After comprehensive survey and design by the geographical survey department, the construction of the entire Lake Eyre Canal will mostly refer to the Kiel Canal in Germany.

This also means that the width of the Lake Eyre Canal (the width of the canal bottom) will be maintained at 44 meters, with a water depth of 11 meters, and can accommodate ships of less than 50,000 tons.

According to estimates from various departments, the entire canal is expected to cost $700 million and take at least eight years to build.

This is also the reason why the cabinet government does not dare to promote the canal construction plan. After all, no one can guarantee that he will still be sitting on the cabinet throne eight years later. This kind of behavior of taking risks on one's own while making a wedding dress for others is not what a qualified politician should promote of.

Of course, it didn't matter to Arthur. Anyway, the person sitting on the throne, besides Arthur, is Arthur's son. It is always the royal family that bears the responsibility for success or failure.

The A$700 million estimate is only a preliminary estimate, and the actual situation will not be known until canal construction begins.

Although the government can afford the money, it certainly cannot spend all its money on the canal.

After thinking about it, the government decided to issue canal bonds to raise part of the funds from the private sector to start the construction of the canal.

At the same time, the entire section of the canal will be divided into large and small projects, and efforts will be made to invite external bids and contract them out.

The issuance of canal treasury bonds has begun at the end of January, and is expected to raise as much money as possible within one month of issuance.

But the fund-raising situation far exceeded Arthur's expectations. In one month, nearly 200 million Australian dollars were raised.

This also means that within this month, most of the funds needed for canal construction have been raised.

Although these national debts will have to be repaid in the future, the money for debt repayment can be deducted from the canal's navigation fees.

In the future, most of the ships that will use the canal will be factory freight ships, and the toll for each trip will be high.

I believe that even if the Lake Eyre Canal cannot become a rare and extremely busy traffic artery like the Kiel Canal in Germany, it can also become a channel connecting central and southern Australia, transporting more minerals to the developed southern areas, and then transporting them Made into industrial products and exported to other countries.

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