>>1619123I love the idea, but the desert is needed to supply the Great Barrier Reef with minerals. Western Australia should be reforsted however, and the western part of the dividing range as well.
To fight erosion and increase water retention, the soil needs to be treated with something like activated charcoal, as the natives in the amazon did. This can be prepared from plant material (excess from agriculture) and human/animal sewage. The science and knowledge is there, but it needs energy and costs money.
>Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a thermochemical process that converts biomass into a coal-like material called HTC-coal by applying high temperature to biomass in a suspension with water under saturated pressure for several hours. Whereas conversion to char via dry pyrolysis is restricted to biomass with dry water content, this process opens up the field of potential feedstock to substrates with a high moisture content such as municipal biowaste, wet agricultural residues and fecal sludge. HTC-coal is an easy to handle product with good dewatering properties and when dried, has a high calorific value. It can be used as a carbon neutralcombustible,a soil conditioner, but also for a wide range of other environmental, electrochemical and catalytic applications. The interesting properties of this technology raises the question about its potential for developing countries. 