WYANGALA DAM

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1935, Page 11

WYANGALA DAM

A WHITE ELEPHANT ?

AUSTRALIAN SCHEME

The' Wyangala Dam, above Cowra, on the Lachlan River, has been completed, and it is anticipated that the official opening will take place within a month or two, writes David W. Harrison in the "Sydney Morning Herald." What will be then said in justification for tha construction of the huge wall is a matter of conjecture. It is apparent that the decision to abandon the original plan to provide stock and domestic water in the Roto and Euabalong districts tp bring about settlement in those areas has left the authorities, without definite proposals to utilise the water. Is the dam to be a white elephant? If not, what is to be done? Many of the idealists in the west who. ■ agitated for the construction of the dam, visualising closer settlement and great enhancement of the natural fertility of the Lachlan Valley soil, are disillusioned and disappointed men. They are beginning to think that the conferences and addresses during the thirty years in which they fough); for the work have gone for naught. They ask, "What is to be done to make the work pay, directly or indirectly?" They point out that the dam is filling now, and that something must be done to utilise the water. The cost of the structure has been about £1,250,000, and the interest bill will be in the vicinity of £50,000 annually. Yet the only revenue immediately to be derived by the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission will be from water rights. And this will not be hew revenue, for that body is now collecting from this source, and has been doing so for many years. Furthermore, the value of these rights 'is so small that they will hardly meet the proportionate part of administrative expenses in connection with the dam. far less its maintenance. LACK OF FUNDS. Investigations have been made by the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission in connection with an irrigation by gravitation scheme at Jemalon, below Forbes, to cover 200,000 acres of excellent land, but" the actual work is held up for want of funds. Each of the'holders in this area will be allotted certain water rights, and the official; idea appears to be that this will eventually lead to closer settlement. : . A former proposal of the Commission, to build nine weirs between Goolagong and Forbes to raise the normal river level, and. so provide for general irrigation, was dropped because of objections raised by the land-holders who would have had to contribute towards the cost through trusts. Quite recently ,th 3 officials also agreed to investigate fully a proposal to run water down a canal, on the j sou,th side of'the river with a take-off just above Goolagong. But it does not seem that piecemeal efforts such as these will bring the State any nearer the realisation of the main object in building the dam—subdivision, and the settlement of a large number of families along both sides of the river from Cowra to Condobolih, a distance of 360 river miles. The Jemalong scheme will certainly not bring this about. It will merely increase the incomes of the present holders, who will gladly pay the low water-right charges. And, after all, there are only 21 holdings yi this area of 200,000 acres. HOLDING THEIR LAND. , Generally speaking, the riparian holders do not want to selk^ If by any chance they do, a purchaser will have to pay the additional value that the Wyangala water will give to the land. This raises the question whether the time has not now arrived for the Government to view the n^atter from the national point of view. Population is required, subdivision is necessary, and people must be given the opportunity of getting good land at reasonable rates. When Sir Edmund Vestey was 'in Forbes last year he stated definitely that the huge freezing works at Daroobalgie, a few miles , from Forbes, would be kept open all through the year, instead of at irregular intervals, if the district could guarantee a supply of 200,000 lambs. Now the area to be served by the Jemalong irrigation scheme alone could supply more than ' half of the number if the holders went in for fat-lamb raising, but it is unlikely that they will, as most of the holdings are large and' their owners concentrate oa merino sheep and woolgrowing. ■ , The needs of the situation raise the all-important question—ls there no way by which all the good river lands can be subdivided into small holdings, each with- a family, and each family with a reasonable prospect of making good? There can be no doubt that closer settlement on the lines followed by the Lands Department in the past is jfutile. In nearly all cases the Department has ignored one important feature," that men winning blocks at the ballot with only £50 to work with have not the slightest chance of making their land pay. It is now accepted that, to achieve success, a settler must have a fair amount of capital, and experience. ■ ;