Building the wetlands of the future

摘要

IT'S IRONIC that on the coastal lowlands of North Queensland where the rainfall is measured in metres, that less than 30% of the original wetlands remain in some regions. The reason is simple — increasingly over the past 30 years, boggy country, wetlands and lagoons have been drained to grow sugar cane. The advent of tracked excavators for drainage works meant that no swamp or water body was safe. It seemed any land could now be made to grow cane.