Power plants and major water projects have been built in the same period that Australia’s population doubled

The meme was published in this Facebook post on July 1, 2019.

It has been shared more than 2,900 times.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

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Screenshot of the misleading post

The meme’s text states: “Australia: The dumb country that doubled its population without building a single new power station or major water project.” 

The meme also appeared on Facebook here, here, here, and here.

The claim is false; Australia has built power plants and major water projects in the period that the country’s population doubled.

-- Power plants --

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australia’s population doubled from over 11.9 million in 1967 to more than 23.9 million in 2015. 

Below is a screenshot of the ABS data. AFP has placed the data for the years 1967 and 2015 together on the spreadsheet for clarity: 

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Between 1967 to 2015, 20 coal-fired power stations in Australia were built. They remain in use as of November 2019.

A list of the 20 coal-fired power plants currently in operation can be found on the Australian Clean Energy Regulator’s website here.

Below is a screenshot of the list:

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“All of Australia’s current coal power stations have been built since 1971 (when the soon to retire Liddell power station began operations),” Guy Dundas, energy fellow at the Grattan Institute, an independent Australian think tank, told AFP by email on October 31, 2019.

“The largest power stations were mainly built during the 1980s: e.g. Eraring (NSW), Bayswater (NSW) and Loy Yang A (Victoria). Several – e.g. Mount Piper (NSW), Stanwell (Qld) and Loy Yang B (Vic) – were completed during the 1990s. Four coal power stations began operating in the 2000s in Queensland: Callide C, Tarong North, Millmerran and Kogan Creek ... the Bluewaters power station in WA also began operating this millennium (around 2009).

“Substantial gas-fired and renewable generation capacity has also been built in recent decades.”

-- Water projects -- 

Professor Stephen Gray, executive director for the Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities, told AFP by email on October 31, 2019, that there had been significant investments in water projects between 1997 to 2010, when the country experienced the millennium drought.

“During that period only, Australia invested in both management of the demand side (how much water people use) and by increasing the available supply. Indeed the supply side increases were large investments in climate independent sources of water such as seawater desalination plants and water recycling plants. This was to address changes in climate as well as changes in population,” Gray explained.

“Indeed, in the case of Perth they now no longer rely on their surface water catchments to supply water and are highly dependent upon the two desalination plants and their newly constructed indirect potable reuse plant to supply water for Perth. All of this investment has occurred since 2000.

“Similarly all the mainland capital cities have a large desalination plant and Brisbane has an indirect potable water recycling plant again implemented after 2000. In addition there was investment in non-drinking water recycled water schemes and stormwater harvesting schemes for industrial, parkland and agricultural use, construction of pipelines in Victoria and South East Queensland to supply areas in drought from other regions.”

In relation to dams and reservoirs, the Thomson Reservoir, which Melbourne Water said “makes up 60 per cent of Melbourne’s storage capacity”, was completed in 1984. 

Brisbane’s Wivenhoe Dam was also built in 1984, and according to the Queensland water authority, Seqwater, is “the main supply of water for Brisbane and the greater Ipswich area.” 

Newer dams include Wyaralong Dam in South East Queensland, which was completed in 2011. Further north in the state is Paradise Dam, which was built in 2005.