This article introduces the Solving the Water Crisis DVD series, a practical and challenging exploration of how we think about water in Australia. Rather than focusing only on dams and restrictions, the series explains why Australia’s real problem is not a lack of rain, but excessive evaporation and poor harvesting of small, local rainfall. Through real examples, system thinking, and lived experience, the DVD invites a rethink of water management that is better suited to Australian conditions.
Solving the Water Crisis DVD
The Solving the Water Crisis series is now available on DVD, with a total running time of approximately 75 minutes. The DVD contains the first five episodes of a series designed to challenge the way we think about water, water scarcity, and water management. Rather than offering a single technical fix, the series explores alternative technologies and, more importantly, alternative ways of thinking about water systems.
Copies of the DVD are available by email request via colinaustin@bigpond.com. The cost is $15 within Australia and $18 for overseas orders. These prices include postage and packaging. Payment can be made via PayPal or direct bank transfer. Further details can be provided by email on request.
DVD Cover Notes
This DVD contains the first five episodes of a broader series aimed at questioning some of the deeply held assumptions about water. Many of the ideas presented are deliberately challenging. The intention is not to dismiss existing water infrastructure, such as dams, but to place them within a more complete and realistic framework for managing water in Australia.
The world of water is full of myths and simplified statements. One of the most common phrases we hear is that Australia is “the driest inhabited continent.” While this statement is often repeated, it hides a more complex and important truth. Australia actually receives enormous quantities of rainfall when measured across the continent.
On average, Australia receives close to one million litres of rain per person per day. This is many times more water than we actually need. The problem is not a lack of rain. The real issue is that much of this water is lost to evaporation before it can be captured or used. In other words, Australia does not suffer from a shortage of rain, but from an excess of evaporation.
Water management technologies developed in the wetter and more mountainous regions of the world have been imported into Australia with little adaptation. These approaches can work well in landscapes with steep slopes, regular rainfall, and lower evaporation. In a much flatter country, exposed to long periods of intense sun and heat, these same technologies are often inadequate on their own.
At present, Australia harvests only the heaviest rainfall events. Even then, we collect only about one litre in every two thousand litres of rain that actually falls. The vast majority of rainfall, particularly small and moderate events, is simply lost. The DVD argues that this is not an unavoidable natural reality, but a consequence of how our systems are designed.
Dams are necessary and will continue to play an important role. However, they need to be integrated into a broader, more holistic water management system that better reflects Australian conditions. Relying on dams alone, without addressing local harvesting and evaporation, leaves us vulnerable to drought and restrictions.
Episodes Included on the DVD
Communal Intelligence
This episode explores how deeply held beliefs about technology can be challenged by real-world experience. It draws on a traumatic visit to a ghost town in the Middle East that was destroyed, not by a lack of technology, but by the unintended consequences of modern technological systems. This experience forced a rethinking of the idea that technology alone can solve complex problems like water scarcity.
The episode introduces the concept of communal intelligence, suggesting that sustainable solutions often emerge from whole systems thinking rather than isolated technical fixes.
Organisations and Creativity
Modern science and engineering are largely based on reductionism. Problems are broken into smaller and smaller parts, analysed in isolation, and then reassembled. While this approach has delivered enormous benefits, it can also lead to omissions and oversimplifications.
This episode explains how reductionist thinking can cause us to miss vital clues when dealing with complex systems such as water, soil, and climate. Creativity and innovation often require stepping outside established organisational structures and being willing to explore ideas that do not fit neatly into existing frameworks.
Kookaburra Park
Kookaburra Park Eco Village is used as a real-world case study. The village is required to meet all of its own water needs while also managing wastewater, including greywater and sewage, without polluting local water sources.
This episode shows how integrated systems can work in practice, combining local water harvesting, reuse, and careful management. It demonstrates that living within water limits does not require a loss of comfort or quality of life, but rather a change in design and thinking.
Water in Dams
This episode addresses a common contradiction: water restrictions imposed during drought, even when significant rainfall occurs at other times. The focus is on how dams can be filled more effectively during rainy periods by using water collected locally, rather than allowing it to evaporate or run off unused.
The episode reinforces the idea that water scarcity is often a timing and storage problem, not an absolute lack of water.
Useful Water
The final episode introduces the concept of “useful life” of water. While we capture some large rainfall events, we largely ignore the small rains that fall on plains and flat landscapes. These small rains can be extremely valuable if they are harvested and stored in the soil rather than lost to evaporation.
By extending the useful life of rainwater, particularly through soil-based storage, we can dramatically reduce the pressure on dams and large-scale infrastructure.
About Colin Austin
Colin Austin built one of Australia’s leading technical software companies based on a pioneering technology known as Moldflow. This work established him as an internationally recognised leader in computational fluid flow.
Recognising that water would become one of the critical constraints facing modern societies, he sold the company and assembled a team of researchers to carry out speculative research into resolving the water crisis. This work drew heavily on his experience in managing creative organisations and solving complex flow problems.
Despite the technical success of many ideas, it proved extremely difficult to engage bureaucratic systems that were unwilling to think beyond established approaches. As a result, the focus shifted toward public education and direct demonstration of alternative ideas.
Eventually, frustration with institutional resistance led to a move into an Eco Village environment, where many of these concepts could be applied and tested in everyday life. The outcomes of this shift are documented throughout the DVD series.
The Solving the Water Crisis DVD is both a practical resource and a call to rethink how communities, governments, and individuals understand water. It does not promise simple answers, but it offers a clear and grounded pathway toward more resilient water systems.
Colin Austin — © Creative Commons. Reproduction permitted for private use with source acknowledgment; commercial use requires a license.
