BIG N.S.W. WATER PROJECT

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25737, 24 February 1949, Page 5

BIG N.S.W. WATER PROJECT

CONSERVATION SCHEME COSTING £2,300,000

_„ w e. SYDNEY, February 23. The New South Wales Government has decided to build a water conaervatmn system costing £2,300,000 near Menindie, on the Darling river „ T “® Minister of Conservation (Mr G. Weir) said it would be the largest storage system ever undertaken in Australia, and that it would supply water to more than 1,000,000 acres of pastoral land between Menindie and Wentworth.

th T ?% Pre '2 ier (Mr J - McGirr) said mat the scheme would be completed in six to eight years, but that benefits wouid be available before that time. .. Th ® p ,' an re< iuires the diversion of the Darling river into Lakes Tandure Menindie. Pamamaroo. and Cawndilla. lhe diversion will be made at a block weir erected upstream from Menindie town.

Engineers will control the flow of te L int ° the lakes and out of them into the Darling river. Evaporation in st P rage lakes is expected to be pigh, but the Government estimates that it will get a flow of 630 feet a second even in the worst drought. The largest Australian water storage system at present is the Hume dam, which has a capacity of 1.250.000 acre-feet, as against 2.000.000 acre-feet m the proposed system. The Government will bring down a bill to set up a conservation authority to co-ordinate the work of the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission, the Forestry Commission, and the Soil Conservation Service.