570 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION J. 



2.— ON UTILISING WASTE UNDERGROUND WATER 

 BY TUNNELLING IN THE HILLS. 



By Thomas Parker, C.E., Port Adelaide. 



I. — ABUNDANCE OP UNDERGROUND WATERS. 



The existence of lai-ge quantities of underground water in South 

 Australia has long been recognised, and they have been utilised to 

 a great extent, both by the ordinary means of wells, and also by 

 means of boreholes with artesian springs. There are. however, 

 some drawbacks to these methods of obtaining water, arising from 

 the cost of lifting it to the surface ; and also in the case of artesian 

 waters arising to the surface, in some cases being found only in 

 small quantities, or at a low level not convenient for distribution 

 over any great extent of country for irrigation purposes, and 

 frequently found to be too salt for most purposes. 



For these reasons I have been led to enter into the enquiry 

 during the last few years as to whether it is not possible to avail 

 ourselves of these subterranean waters by means of tunnels in the 

 hills, and thus obtain larger supplies at much less cost, and at 

 levels more convenient for distribution to our cities and towns, 

 and for irrigation on the plains. I am now inclined to think the 

 answer can be given in the affirmative, and my object in these 

 notes is to give a few data and reasons in support of that conclu- 

 sion, and to endeavour to reduce to a scientific form our present 

 data respecting the underground waters of this colony. 



I had an opportunity some time ago of examining the large 

 district through which the Willochra Creek has its course, with' 

 its numerous branch creeks from the hills, and I obtained 

 particulars, over a wide district, of the general position of the 

 underground waters. From the depths at which the water stands 

 in a large number of wells in the sloping country on the eastei'n 

 face of the Flinders Range, I ascertained that on a line running 

 about two miles below the top of the range the water in the 

 wells was pretty uniformly at a depth of from ninety to one 

 hundred feet from the surface of the creek level, and tlae water 

 generally free from salt, and useful for domestic purposes and for 

 irrigation ; and on a line about three miles lower down, and 

 parallel to the main road from Quorn to Wilmington, the wells 

 were found to be one hundred and fifty feet in depth and 

 generally slightly brackish. I found, also, these depths prevailed 

 generally along this slope of the Flinders Range. From these 



