History
The first schemes for irrigation commenced in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Goulburn Weir, constructed from 1887 to 1891, was the first major diversion structure built for irrigation development in Australia.
A major drought in Victoria from 1877 to 1884 prompted Alfred Deakin, then a minister in the State Government and chairman of a Royal Commission on water supply to visit the irrigation areas of California. There he met the Canadian brothers George and William Chaffey who had worked on irrigation schemes in California. In 1886 the Chaffey brothers came to Australia and selected a derelict sheep station covering 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) at Mildura as the site for their first irrigation settlement. They signed an agreement with the Victorian government to spend at least £300,000 on permanent improvements at Mildura in the next twenty years. Also in 1886/87, the Chaffey brothers were invited by John Downer, the Premier of South Australia, to commence a settlement at Renmark, South Australia.
The Dethridge wheel, used for measuring flow of water delivered to individual farms was developed in 1910.
Irrigation in the Murrumbidgee valley began in with the irrigation experiments of agricultural pioneer, Samuel McCaughey at North Yanco station in 1900. This private scheme involved the construction of around 320 kilometres of channels to irrigate about 162 square kilometres of land. McCaughey's success appeared to have encouraged the New South Wales government to commence large scale irrigation. This process began in 1906 with the proclamation of the Barren Jack and Murrumbidgee Canals Construction Act 1906. Burrinjuck Dam on the Murrumbidgee River near Tumut was commenced in 1907, work commenced on the channels and the first farms were established soon after.
In Western Australia the state's first controlled irrigation scheme, the Harvey Irrigation Scheme, was officially started in 1916. It was further developed during the latter part of the 1930s depression to take unemployed workers to dig and build the extensive irrigation channels in the district.
Read more about this topic: Irrigation In Australia
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