THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. IX. 



CHICAGO, JUNE, 1896. 



NO. 6. 



IRRIGATION IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.* 



CHAPTER I. GOVERNMENT AID. FORMATION OF DISTRICTS. 

 BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. 



SOIL eminently suited to the growth of 

 cereals and fruit trees is found over 

 a large area in Victoria where the climatic 

 conditions are unfavorable. The average 

 annual rainfall varies from seventy inches 

 on the coast ranges to nine inches over the 

 northern and western plains. The fine 

 sunshine and dry air of these interior 

 plains are well adapted to mature fruit to 

 perfection, but the deficient rainfall makes 

 fruit production uncertain. To render 

 producers independent of rainfall and to 

 enable them to make the most of the soil 

 at their disposal, irrigation trusts have 

 been formed, a brief description of which, 

 with a more detailed account of one or two 

 as types of the east, may be of interest to 

 your readers in America. Victoria is 

 divided into two portions by a high range 

 running generally east and west. The 

 humid air currents from the south deposit 

 their moisture on this range, thus forming 

 a large gathering ground, from which are 

 fed numerous streams which run north to 

 the Murray River, the northern boundary 

 of the colony. The plains to the north of 

 the divide are thus deprived of much of 

 the rainfall, which under other physical 

 conditions would have been deposited on 

 them, but in compensation have ample 

 supplies of water running through them 

 in the form of streams sufficient, if prop- 

 erly conserved and directed, to furnish all 

 the moisture necessary for the production 

 of cereals and fruits. To this conforma- 

 tion of the country is attributable the fact 

 that the majority of the trusts are situat- 

 ed near the northern center of Victoria. 



*A11 rights reserved. 



Prior to the formation of the trusts 

 private owners of property had erected 

 windmills or provided small steam plants, 

 for raising water for stock, and incidental- 

 ly for irrigating gardens and small areas 

 of crop, etc., but it was not until 1881 

 that the Victorian 'legislature passed an 

 act authorizing the constitution of water 

 supply trusts. This provided that nine 

 councils, into which the colony is divided 

 for the purpose of local government, could 

 form themselves into such trusts, subject 

 to the approval of the government from 

 whom they could borrow money necessary 

 for the works, repaying principal and in- 

 terest by the revenue received from rates 

 levied within the area under their control. 



The trusts formed under this act were 

 not only for agricultural and horticultural 

 purposes but also for providing water for 

 stock, for which purpose existing water- 

 courses and depressions were made use of, 

 to fill which, water was conserved at con- 

 venient places and permitted to run into 

 them at stated times during the dry 

 season. 



VISITED AMERICA. 



The bill was found to be only partially 

 successful and was amended in succeeding 

 years, until at the close of 1884 a royal 

 commission was appointed "to inquire 

 into the question of water supply and 

 into other matters relating thereto." The 

 chairman, Mr. Alfred Deakin, member 

 of the legislative assembly, visited Amer- 

 ica for the purpose of studying irrigation ' 

 in its latest application, and information 

 was also obtained on the subject from var- 

 ious countries of the old and new world. 



The entire contents of THE IRRIGATION AGE are copyrighted. 



