The MDB is/was a long term failure for one reason - Rising Salinity from excess pumping of irrigation water onto land and excess catchments and the concurrent demolition of salt sucking trees such as Mallee....

These actions serve to raise the water table, and with it the salinity... which is why, when you fly over the Lower Murray, you see a massive grey area of dead land, which then reflects the sun from salt deposits....

So - I would seriously like to see what the overall plan is.... and I still say a better long-term option is the GAIA Mk 1, which would provide not only drainage of salt, but also a micro-climate...

ADDS:-  Oh - and what's going to happen when leaching of fracking materials and mining tailings etc begins and permeates into water supplies?

There are many issues that need to be looked at here - not just some simplistic concept of digging wells for the global village....