ARTESIAN BORES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 5

ARTESIAN BORES

FLOW STEADILY DIMINISHING PROBLEM FOR NORTHERN NEW SOUTH WALES (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, October 10. The New South Wales Government is being urged to make an investigation into the water resources of the northern and north-western districts of this State, which now depend largely on the supply of water from artesian bores for domestic and stock purposes. These bores have enabled the settlement and development

of huge areas, not only in New South Wales, but also in Queensland. Now they are stated to be failing. The annual diminution in the flow from the northern bores is estimated at 3 per cent. Officers of tire Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission have expressed the opinion that the majority of the bores will cease to flow within 20 years. The greatest decrease in the How of a single bore is that of one sunk 29 years ago. Then the daily flow was 950,000 gallons; now it is only 205,000 gallons. Three bores in the Moree district have completely failed. It is estimated that an area of 10,000,000 acres in northern and north-western New South Wales is dependent on bores for water supply. The latest return to the Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission states that 233 bores in the MoreeCoonamble district have been periodically gauged since 1914, when their total

flow was 83,500,000 gallons a day. At June 30, 1934, the flow of the 233 bores had fallen to 41,700,000 gallons—a decrease of about 50 per cent, in the last 19 years. In the Bourke-Broken Hill district 103 bores in 1920-21 gave a total flow of 10,350,000 gallons a day. In 1933-34 tlie How was 0,300,000 gallons a day, a decrease of about 30 per cent, in the 14 years. There arc 405 flowing bores in New South Wales, the How at the last gauging being 71,000,000 gallons a day. The deepest bore in the State is the Boronga bore, north of Moree, 4338 feet. The bore with the biggest How is Angledool No. 2, north of Walgett, 1,180,000 gallons daily. Simply stated, the problem, according to experts, arises from the fact that the water drawn from the artesian basin is greater than the water being supplied to it by rainfall, so that the pressure available for forcing water to the surface is gradually becoming less. It is

asserted that the bore system cannot be replaced by ordinary service dams, for even in an otherwise good season the dam would not fill unless there was heavy rain. The Government has been asked to have a detailed survey made of the river systems in the north, with a view to replacing the failing bore supplies.