MURRAY WATERS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 9, 10 July 1935, Page 15

MURRAY WATERS

FOR NEW SOUTH WALES

HtIME DAM'S MEANING

c The completion of the Hume Dam to c the 1,250,000-acre-feet level enables this • State to make larger use cf the Mur--0 ray waters than was possible hereto- '' fore, writes L. Peacock in the "Syda ney Morning Herald." Hitherto New South Wales drew from the Murray to n a limited extent only, and that for mrr tense horticultural irrigation. The areas t thus served by pumping were mainly f Curlwaa, three miles above the junch tion of the Darling with the Murray i- and Coomealla, five miles further up J the latter stream. Curlwaa was estab--1 lished under an Act passed in 1890. It j, comprises 10,590 acres, of which 1405 i are irrigable. This settlement languish- !- Ed for several years, but is now estabi lished as one of the most flourishing 1 areas in the river system. Coomealla is a more recent enterprise of 2100 irriv gable acres, and is a very successful s undertaking. 1 Compared with the vast areas now 2 proposed to be served by gravitation J from the diversion weir at Yarrawonga, 1 the two above-mentioned are but pin--3 point specks on the map. From pro- ;. liminary investigations it is estimated 3 that within the immense region west - of Mulwala and north of the Murray towards the Murrumbidgee, six million ,- acres could be commanded by a main p and distributory canal system. Of this r great area a fair proportion would be 1 suitable for irrigation. 5 With the inauguration of "this huge 2 scheme a somewhat drastic change will l be introduced in the utilisation of Mur- - ray waters on the New South Wales i side. From now on it appears there E will be little or nothing doing in the way of developing further horticultural settlements along the Murray. It is held that the general outlook for 1 fruitgrowing does not warrant greatly ' increased provision for this industry. ' Sufficient rice, also, is annually pro--5 duced on the Murrumbidgee areas • alone-to meet the needs of the wholo Commonwealth. ; ! ULTIMATE LIMITS. - It is the settled policy of the authori- . ties to disallow the use of water in I the Wakool and Berriquin districts for ■ the production of these crops, on' a i commercial scale. What effect this is i likely to have.upon any future closer , settlement policy lower down and : closer to the Murray it is difficult for • the layman to suggest, but it seems ■ clear that even with 2,000,000-acre-feet • impoundage at Hume Dam the limit ot ■ 'available water supplies must eventually be reached. The scheme under 1 notice is essentially a great and deter- , mined effort to provide unfailing sup- ' plies of water for domestic and stock i needs, and, above all, for the irriga- ; tion of lucerne and other suitable crops ■ and in some cases the natural pastures :so desperately needed to safeguard the ; sheep industry. ' The relief of pastoral and other in- . terests will be effected by the consti- . tution of extensive districts. Two such : districts have been already constituted. viz., Wakool and Berriquin. Wakool district is situated west of Deniliqum, comprising an area of 541,752 acres, ; wedged between the Edward and Wak- • 00l Rivers. Water will be diverted ; for this district indirectly from the Murray by means of a weir on the Edward River. Adjacent to this weir will be a large" diversion channel, which will supply a great network of branch channels. These in turn will eventually touch the highest point ot every holding within the district., Work upon the diversion weir and distributory system has been in progress for upwards of two years. Berriquin district, has been more recently constituted, and embraces an area of 611,600 acres. The term "Berriquin" has been coined from letters ot the town names of "Berrigan" and "Deniliquin," to designate the country to be served between these centres. By forming a mental picture of the coastal area between Hawkesbury River entrance on the north and Wollongong on the south, and an average depth from the coast as far back as Penrith, we have a territory equivalent to the Berriquin district. At a later stage the Mulwala Canal will be joined up with the Wakool channel system, adding extra security against the severest strain droughts may bring to bear upon the areas. YARRAWONGA WEIR. The prosperous Victorian town of Yarrawonga, situated directly opposite the village of Mulwala, gives its name to the weir which is to control the river in this locality. This structure must be classed among" the most important of the whole system of works along the Murray, for, when completed, as previously mentioned, it will provide for a big offtake canal in Victoria as well as that of Mulwala in this State. The structure will comprise a concrete weir 370 feet in length across the main channel of the Murray. It will contain eight large shifting gates, each 40 feet long by 20 feet high, which will provide for the passage of flood waters. Mechanism to be installed on an overhead bridge will be operated to lift these gates entirely out of /the stream in fioodtime, when the head of the water may reach a depth of 40 feet. A low concrete weir will extend from the centre stream structure for a distance of 1100 feet across.the river flats to higher ground on the New South Wales side. The passage of water over this section will occur only during very high floods. The main canal on the Victorian side will offtake immediately upstream from the weir, and carry its flow to the proposed Murray Valley districts between Yarrawonga, Cobram, Numurkah, and Shepparton. This canal will command approximately 400,000 acres, of which 90,000 acres will be provided with irrigation supply, and will be one more splendid addition to Victoria's great record of water supply and distribution. The Western Riverina Development League, comprised of men possessing intimate knowledge of local conditions, has advocated for several years that water for irrigation should be regarded as a matter of urgency.' In 1931 a meeting was held between representative landholders and Mr. Commissioner Dare to discuss the question in its relation to the proposed Wakool district. Practically all those who spoke declared themselves in favour of the scheme if water were made available at reasonable cost. Ten settlers whose land is within the district of Wakool, and whose holdings aggregate nearly 80,000 acres, declared themselves enthusiastically in favour of the proposal. Their opinion may be taken as generally in- accord with that held by most of the land men within, the boundaries of both great districts. They have been driven to this conviction— which, in the case of some local leaders, amounts almost to a passion—by th? burning logic of facts. In Australia, thanks to a few farseeing statesmen and landholders, backed by the unassuming but able work .of our own engineers, our people are becoming, "water-minded." BASED ON IT. We are beginning slowly to realise that upon the development and utilisation of our water resources the material prosperity and social welfare of the community largely depend. Australia is peculiarly devoid of great rivers, and, of our 3,000,000 square miles of territory, more than two-thirds have an annual rainfall of less than 20 inches. This is compensated for to some extent

by artesian and- sub-artesian supplies, which alone make possible the occupation of many thousands of square miles of country. But as Mr. Commissioner L. R. East points out in his paper on "Water Supply .Problems in Australia," "in the Great Australian artesian basin as a whole, although the number of bores has increased from 1610 in the I year 1912 to 3574, the total daily discharge of the flowing bores has fallen from 623,000,000 gallons to 372,000,000 gallons." It appears that the draught upon the great basin in twenty odd years has been greater than its intake, and it is at least interesting to contemplate what may eventually happen to this particular territory should the discharge flow continue to dwindle. On the face of things, it looks like the prospect of a man or a State whose expenditure steadily exceeds income. In a recent leading article of the "Herald" upon the subject of "Drought,"' a reminder was given that "we cannot change the climate ... we must accept it and fit our conditions accordingly." Quite so; and there is a tremendous urge in the direction of making the utmost of our surface waterways, especially of our inland streams, which, on the whole, fortunately carry the heaviest volume through extensive territory where the rainfall is lightest. Australia's population is well over 6,000,000 and may yet rise to 60,000,000, but, as Dr. Fenner reminds us, "it is as well to recognise that when we do have 60,000,000, the relative distribution o£ population will not be greatly different from what it is now." The wisdom of the position, generally i seems to be in the direction of making provision for the maximum population where there is some prospect of securing the maximum amount of comfort. And eventually this condition will obtain within those bounds where our available water supplies are made capable of spilling their regulated favours. It is confidently anticipated that the great canal scheme will in time make it unnecessary for landholders within the areas to seejk relief country for their stock in dry times; the carrying capacity of holdings will be increased and made safe; drought losses will be practically eliminated; the quality of wool and the'fat lamb trade will be safeguarded, and much of the dreadinseparable ffom uncertain seasons will be removed. In due time it should be a common sight on many a holding within the districts to see flocks grazing in luscious paddocks, where otherwise some of their drought-shrunken pelts would be hanging on a fence.