84 



The Underground Waters of South Aus- 

 tralia, AND Suggestions as to Mode of 

 THEIR Utilization. 



By TnoiiAS Parker, C.E. 

 [Read May 3, 1887.1 



The existence o£ large quantities of undergTOund water in 

 South Australia has long been recognised, and they have been 

 utilised to a considerable extent to the great advantas^e of the 

 country, both by the ordinary method of wells, as also by 

 means of bore-holes into artesian waters. 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 oi 

 artesian waters rising to the surface, in most cases, in small 

 quantities, and at a low elevation not convenient for distribu- 

 tion over any great extent of country. Por these reasons I 

 have been led to enter into the inquiry during recent years as 

 to whether it is not possible to avail ourselves of these subter- 

 ranean 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 or for irrigating our' 

 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 conclusion, and to endea- 

 vour to reduce to a scientific form our present data respecting 

 the underground waters. 



I had an opportunity some time ago of examining the large 

 district and extensive basin through which the AYillochra 

 Creek has its course, with 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 on the- 

 sloping country on the eastern face of the Flinders Range, I 

 ascertained that on a line running about two miles below the 

 lop of the range the water in the wells was pretty uniformly at 

 a depth of from 90 to 100 feet from the surface or creek level, 

 and the water generally free from salt, and useful for domestic 

 purposes and for irrigation. On a line lower down, about two 

 miles, and near and parallel to the main road from Quorn to 

 "Wilmington, the wells were found to be about 150 feet in depth,, 

 and generally slightly brackish. 



