Water Conservation Chief Problem In Victoria: Erosion A minor Issue

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23218, 1 April 1950, Page 4

Water Conservation Chief Problem In Victoria: Erosion A minor Issue

“QU.lv chief problem in Victoria is to conserve the runoff from a limited rainfall for use in irrigation projects. Erosion is a minor issue compared with water conservation, and we have nothing like the acute loss of soil which New Zealand suffers in certain closely-defined

areas. "Conservation is a State job, and the State finds all the capital required, since water is the lifeblood of a large part of our territory, and proper use of what we can-impound is a basic consideration in our programme to increase the population-carrying capacity of the State,” said Mr. 11. E. Bolte, Minister of Water Supply and Conservation in the Victorian Parliament, in an interview in G isbornc yesterday. The minister added that if the State of Victoria could impound in irrigation dams every acre-foot of run-off, it could still only give an adequate supply of irrigation water to 3 uper cent of the State territories. Capital costs involved in these projects were huge, and there was a considerable loss in delivery of water to the areas where it could be best used. The cost factor makes use of impounded water for hydro-electric generation impracticable except in isolated areas. Heavy Capital Investment To date the Victorian Government has invested £17,000,000 in the construction of headworks of irrigation schemes, and it has just secured power to spend a further £25,000,000 in various projects, chief of which will be the £12,000,000 Goulburn dam designed to impound 2,750,000 acre-feet of water. State policy is based in a considerable degree upon the acknowledged necessity of increasing Victoria’s population. There are huge areas of land in which farmers can make only a bare living so long as they depend upon the meagre normal rainfall, but which are capable of extraordinary development when irrigation methods can be applied. The State Government endeavours by a long-term programme to make all these areas bloom, on the assumption that increased production capacity will draw more population . and that increases in rural population will be reflected in consequential advances in town and city population. In connection with the new Goulburn project, it is estimated that 25,000 more people will work the irrigated lands, and a similar number will And profitable employment in towns in and about the area. Furthermore, city population is likely to increase by 50,000 as a result of the increased business which will develop. State Bears Development Costs These figures help to explain the general policy of the State Government

on capital costs of irrigation works. Those who benefit from these projects are not expected to defray the capital costs, either by initial investments or by heavy irrigation rents. In general, irrigation rents received at present barely offset the working and administrative costs of the projects; capital investment of State funds is expected to be recouped in the long run from improved general prosperity. The State does not acquire lands before opening up its irrigation projects, as a general rule, Mr. Bolte replied to a question. A survey is made of farm-lands in the area to be dealt with, aaid the irrigable land on every holding is assessed. The land-owner is then levied with an irrigation rent on an annual basis, and this is payable whether he uses the water or not. This procedure gives the project a definite basic revenue to work on, and has the secondary effect of forcing the sub-division of large holdings; since if a man owns more irrigable land than he can farm himself the burden of annual levies obliges him to do something about it.

Soldier Settlement Conditions The exceptional cases in which the State Government resumes land before irrigating it apply to servicemen’s settlement. Victoria’s policy of land settlement for servicemen is similar in many respects to the Discharged Servicemen’s Settlement Act which operated in New Zealand after the First World War, and therefore differs very considerably from the New Zealand rehabilitation scheme for Second World War veterans. The Victorian State Government brings the water to tho land, ringfences the individual settler’s holding, and then tells him to “go to it.” It stands behind him with finance for home-building, but does not undertake capital improvements as a State function. One outstanding result of the policy is that Victoria has placed over 4000 men on the land since hostilities ended. The efficiency factor In Victoria’s irrigation schemes is not particularly

high, mainly because the sites available for impounding water are often far removed from the areas in * which the water can be used to advantage. It is sometimes necessary to carry water in open unlined channels for distances up to 300 miles, and 50 per cent of the water is lost in transit. To line these channels and reduce loss would be an insuperable capital venture. No Hydro-Elsctric Tie-up

The fact that huge reservoirs created under the irrigation policy are not associated with hydro-electric projects is explained by the fact that the water cannot be used twice. Mr. Bolte pointed out that if the impounded water were put through turbines in the winter, when the demand for power is heaviest, it could not be held for summer use in cultivated areas without doubling-up the headworks cost, and of course investing millions in generating plant. Victoria is fortunate in the possession of vast deposits of brown coal, however, and depends mainly upon _ this fuel for steam generation of electricity. Developments in connection with these deposits will, within three years, bring brown-coal production in Victoria level with New South Wales’ present production of black coal. It will relieve Victoria from its old dependence on the New South Wales coalfields, to a large degree. The erosion angle of Victoria’s conservation problem is linked with the irrigation projects, said Mr. . Holtc. Sheet and surface erosion is at work in the higher lands of the State, but it is exceptional when eroded material reaches the sea. Most of it is trapped in the irrigation dams, and soil conservation is directed chiefly to protecting these dams against silting. Gully erosion was nothing like the problem there that it had become in New Zealand, where the lie of the land and short, swift-flowing rivers constituted a serious menace to arable soils, he added. Costs Beyond District Capacity It appeared to Mr. Bolte that loss of soil was an essential danger to this Dominion, as much as the shortage of water was to Victoria. One country had too much water to handle over flood periods: the other had too little over the whole year for its whole territory. He felt, however, that both countries had problems too great, in the conservation field, for the capital resources of individual districts. It was impossible for a farming district to finance the cost of an irrigation project; and it seemed equally impossible that an individual district could find the capital for erosion control such as he had seen in his brief tour in New Zealand to date. The Victorian answer was for the State to find the whole of the capital cost, and to look to the beneficiaries for working and administration costs only under present conditions of population.