FLOWING GOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 136, 11 June 1938, Page 21

FLOWING GOLD.

AUSTRALIAN WATER. f

A PRODIGAL WASTE.

SCIENCE TAKES A HAND,

Now the stock have started dying, for the Lord hag sent a drought; But we're sick of prayers and providence— we re going to do without; With the derricks up above us and the solid earth below. We are waiting at the lever for the word to let her go.

In those lines, Patterson caught much of the spirit of the men who drilled for artesian water in the days when it was generally supposed that the bores would provide an inexhaustible eupply for future use, writes Frank Cork in the "Adelaide Chronicle." There was a recklessness in their outlook that has made itself felt in the steady diminution of output, year after year.

Following the locating of the "mound springe," which disclosed the locality of artesian basins, in 1880, numerous boree were sunk. Long streams of life-giving water, gleaming in the sun, flowed in an ever-increasing network of deep channels cut with no thought of economising on the supply, which had been secured merely at the cost of drilling for it. It flowed away into the distance to merge with misty mirages, bringing new life to starving sheep and cattle and entirely changing the face of the locality.

The owners let it flow at randomthere was alwaye plenty more. It was secured cheaply. The drought, for them, had lost its terror.

The Lure of Water. The flow of artesian came to possess a lure almost ae strong as the fickle gleam of gold. Engines drove drills plugging down into the earth to a level of 4000 ft, end more in eearch of the precious fluid.

While to many euccess spelt a new prosperity, some of the settlers sank their last money in the cost of drilling for flow which, after the spending of much time and labour, remained only a hope. Contract pricee soared higher and the hopes o f the men fell ae they eoared and no flow appeared. Hope died herd, though; the men plugged on uwtil cash was exhausted. Then plant was dismantled and vain hope slid into the shaft to lie buried in an arid land that had withheld its promise of liquid riches.

With the opening of the bores thousands of cattle and eheep were eaved yearly as water flowed freely for hundrede of miles. This obviated the difficulty offered by sub-artesian water, where supply is pumped into a tank for storage and controlled by a valve which keeps the water at a steady level. Naturally stock ate the grass near the tank fir&t, gradually spreading out in a wide circle until many of the beaets, weak from hunger, were unable to stagger back to the troughs and died on the plains.

The land for half a mile or more around the tank became permanently denuded of grass, and the dust was lifted in stifling clouds by the stock when they came i-\ water. In the case of sheep the wool was damaged by the duet and lost much of ite marketable value.

One readily sees that in a paddock that may extend for hundred*; of miles, and is criss-croseed with bore-drains, the advantage is great. Stock niav water practically on the spot, and the condition of the beasts iu kept to a high standard.

Races Against Time. Stirring tales were told of races against time while cattle were dying and the temperatures soared. Engines pounded through the heat, and stubborn drills rammed deeper and deeper until, after heartbreaking effort, the men were rewarded with a million-gallon flow— or nothing.

Wild cheering and shrilling of the whistle marked the striking of a flow as tho water came surging up from 4000 feet below to spout above the casing and go flowing across the parched land, bringing in its wake a wave of prosperity. Fortunes were written in gleaming streams on the dry face of the desert.

It was all too easy, and constant flow, spread unchecked over a period of many miles, has taken its toll of the artesian basins. Owners are tardily awakening to the fact that the supply is not, after all, inexhaustible. They have seen the production of their own bore lessen and that of some of their more unfortunate neighbours cease completely. They have taken to reviewing statistics, and the figures are not bright.

Taking the production of the bores in 1914 as a 100 per cent standard, the diminution has been startling. By 1924 it had dropped to 73.6 per cent, and by 1934 had reached the alarmingly low level of 55.9 per cent.

In artesian districts, hot springs, rising from a great depth, deposit mineral matter in solution. This, on drying, leaves the salts, building up into a mound from which the water continues to flow. Some of the mounds reach gigantic proportions. South-west of Lake Eyre some of these mounde have reached a. height of 80 to 90ft, with an area of perhaps 25 acres on their crests. Immense deposits of carbonate of lime, they glare in the strong sunlight of that arid land. Evidently the mounds have been the camping place of black tribes for generations, as spears, knives and stone implements of all kinds have been found there as reminders of their visits. The Fall In The Flow. By 1914, 381 successful bores in Xew South Walea were yielding in the aggregate about a million gallons of good water daily. The artesian basin had been traced into Queensland, and 985 bores in that State were yielding five million gallons a day. They were fruitful days when the men gloried in the sight of the flowing water, giving no thought to the future. Bore-drains were ill-surveyed and so deep and wide that they allowed immense losses from evaporation. Even to-day, when science is taking g> hand in controlling the output, it is estimated that of the amount of water produced, only 3.6 per cent is actually used by the stock. Despite the fact that New South Wales passed legislation insisting that valves be fitted in order to cease the flow when not necessary, the decrease in production still goes on. Queensland, too, presents sorry figures, as the flow there has decreased 1 from 480 million gallons daily in 1912 to 240 million gallons daily. This, despite the fact that there "are now 1656 bores to-day, compared with 810 in 1912. ! Several reasons have been put fur-' ward as to the cause of the diminution, among them being the corrosion of the casing which allows tho water to become absorbed by the porous rock above the water-bearing stratum; ill-fitting casing, which allow* me water to be forced uf|'

on the outside and thus become absorbed in the same manner; and the third and probably soundest theory has it that the water is being drained from the artesian basins at a rate that greatly exceeds the supply. Now a belated effort is"being made to conserve supply, and science is taking a hand in the game. Channels are being properly surveyed and cut as narrow and shallow as is practically possible. It is hoped that this lessening of consumption may allow tb '"•■«ins to attain again their prolific storage of water.