Questions and Answers: Practical Wicking Bed Advice
This question and answer article brings together real conversations between growers and Colin Austin, addressing the most common practical issues faced when…
An Independent Water Think Tank: Innovation, Creativity, and the Future of Water
This page introduces an independent water “think tank” focused on innovation rather than politics or commercial interests. It explains why water management…
About This Site: Soil, Water, and the Search for Sustainable Solutions
This article explains the origins and purpose of this site. Colin Austin outlines how severe soil loss in Australia led him to…
The Gbiota Philosophy 4: From Subsurface Experiments to Microflood and Wicking Beds
In the mid-1990s, Colin Austin asked a simple question: are there better ways of applying water? Horticulture had become more efficient, but…
Irrigation Publications and Technical Guides
This downloads page provides access to key Waterright resources on water, irrigation efficiency, and practical solutions for growing food with limited water.…
Solving the Water Crisis Video Series
The “Solving the Water Crisis” video series shares Colin Austin’s search for practical answers to the global water crisis. What began as…
Water Wit and Wisdom: How Innovation Can Solve Australia’s Water Crisis
Water Wit and Wisdom steps back from technical debates about water and instead examines how we think about water. It explores why…
Publications And Topics On Water, Soil, And Irrigation
This page lists Colin Austin’s publications across water, irrigation scheduling, salinity, soil, climate change, and practical farm innovation. It includes books, manuals,…
Colin Austin Part 2: A Life Of Innovation In Water, Soil, And Sustainable Systems
Colin Austin is an engineer, inventor, and founder of Moldflow, a software company that helped shift plastics mould design from “gut feel”…
Colin Austin: A Life of Innovation in Water, Soil, and Sustainable Systems
This article tells the story of Colin Austin, an Australian engineer and innovator whose work spans advanced computer modelling, irrigation reform, soil…
Droughtproofing in Ethiopia: Low-Cost Irrigation Lessons for a Water-Scarce World
This article describes a practical droughtproofing project developed in Ethiopia to address food insecurity during severe drought. Invited by World Vision to…
Water, Soil, and Irrigation Publications: Two Decades of Innovation and Research
This page brings together a chronological overview of publications that document a long-term exploration of water, soil, irrigation, and sustainability. Spanning more…
Solving the Water Crisis: Why Australia Has Plenty of Rain but Still Runs Out of Water
This article introduces the Solving the Water Crisis DVD series, a practical and challenging exploration of how we think about water in…
Water, Salinity, and Irrigation Reform in Australia: Technology, Policy, and the Missing Link
This article explains why Australia’s real water crisis is not only drought, but salinity and soil sodification caused by how irrigation water…
Lessons for Australia: Rethinking Irrigation, Water Efficiency, and Basin Rehabilitation
Australia faces many of the same water challenges seen in parts of Africa, including unreliable rainfall, water scarcity, and recurring drought. This…
Innovative Solutions to the Water Crisis
This article explores a practical, innovation-led approach to solving water scarcity. It traces how unconventional research methods led from early engineering work…
Solving Australia’s Water Crisis: Why Systems, Not Rainfall, Are Failing Us
Australia is often described as “the driest inhabited continent”, yet the raw facts point to a different problem: we receive substantial rainfall…
The plan
There are two problems. The short-term problem is that our current food system is deficient in the microbes which form our gut biome and essential minerals which have led to...
Riddle
Look around the world and back over time and you will see the great riddle of three communities. We see low tech communities with a poor food system, lack of...
Applying Technology
With all our modern technology and automated production capacity, we should only need to work a couple of days a week to have everything we need and live a healthy...
Become a Healthy Food Ambassador
The global food crisis is not some threat for the future, it is here right now, it is not just about poor people starving in some remote country it is...
The Great Food War
Will the power of mega-corporations that control our food system reign supreme leaving the community fat and sick and destroying civilisation as we know it as the supply of essential...
Gbiota Tri Box – background
Modern food is full of energy but is low in the nutrients which feed our gut brain which acts as our intelligent control system which regulates, among many things, our...
Minister’s Reply on Water Reform and Water-Saving Innovation (2006)
In May 2006, Malcolm Turnbull MP replied to Colin Austin’s letter about Australia’s water policy and new technologies to harvest more rain.…
What Traditional Food Systems in Yunnan Teach Us About Health
This article is a practical travel reflection written from Shenzhen after a trip to Yunnan. The “official” reason for the visit is…
Queensland’s Water Crisis and the 2006 State Election
In the lead-up to the 2006 Queensland State Election, water emerged as one of the biggest public concerns. This short update explains…
The Doctor and the Water Crisis: How Local Solutions Can End a Man-Made Shortage
This article explains why the so-called water crisis is largely man-made and how communities can manage water successfully using simple, local technologies.…
Wanted: Regenerative Farmers to Grow Food for Health, Soil, and Climate
This announcement is a call to regenerative farmers who want to grow food that supports real human health while restoring soil and…
Queensland Floods — What Role Does Climate Change Play?
The Queensland floods of 2010–2011 raised a hard question: was this simply another natural flood, or a sign of a changing climate?…
Dear Malcolm: Proposal to Help Solve Australia’s Water Crisis
This short letter sets out a straightforward problem and a practical next step. Australia receives an enormous volume of rainfall overall, yet…
Eco-Village Accommodation In Queensland: Heritage Stay At Kookaburra Park
Looking for a slower, healthier way to live (even if only for a week)? Kookaburra Park Eco Village offers a calm heritage…