However, despair - rightly or wrongly - eventually triggers direct action. Tossing an effigy of a politician into the river may be symbolic, however a one-day media grab will not concern those in power.

Maybe there are no obvious answers to the current situation apart from heavy rain, but the call to pause the Murray-Darling plan's operation and allow environmental water to be used by farmers makes sense.

How about we worry about the direction of the plan and water for the environment after we get through this current drought.?

In the past, when farmers suffered from climatic boom and bust, so did the environment. One could argue that the changing climatic environment has given us the flora and flora of the present day. For example the resilience of our eucalypts that shoot out sprouts in the wake of a bushfire. The proliferation of red gum seedlings after a flood. And yes native animals, birds and fish died in their tens of thousands when the rivers ran periodically dry. The kangaroo species can switch off breeding in dry periods.

Environmental water is ensuring the health of riverside forests and birds and animals thrive. Have we gone mad?

At a recent field day, it was stated that with the cost of poles and wires rising to unrealistic rates, more diesel-powered generation, not less, is the immediate future.

Queensland manager for Welling and Crossley John Graves said he was pleasantly surprised when the first customer at AgQuip ordered a 14kVa diesel-powered generator to run electric pivot irrigation pumps, as well as providing electricity to the house. "He is not alone," said Mr Graves. "We hear some horror stories about the cost of getting three-phase power to pivots and worksheds. The figures go into six figures."