Irrigation Farming in Australia. 19 



distance of the frontage, used for dry farming and stock running. 

 On the opposite bank of the river, near Renmark, are Lyrup and 

 Loxton, the centres of thriving wheat districts in the back country 

 behind them. Lyrup is the last remaining of the communistic 

 village settlements founded in 1894, but is mostly held by farmers 

 individually. It is a flourishing area of 500 acres of orchards. 



IRRIGATION SCHEMES IN OTHER STATES. 



Western Australia. 



Western Australia is expected shortly to begin on a scheme for 

 a number of small irrigation settlements on several coastal rivers 

 in the south-west. This locality has an equable climate all the year 

 round, though the land is rather heavily timbered in most parts as 

 compared with virgin country in the eastern irrigation settlements 

 in Eastern Australia. 



The best example of irrigation at present in this State is on the 

 Harvey River, where there is about 1500 acres under orchard and 

 other cultivation by this means. It is considered by experts to be 

 specially fine country for citrus trees. Stimulated by the examples 

 of Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia, the Western 

 Australian Government is proposing to impound water in four small 

 rivers in the coastal district to the south of Perth the Collie, 

 Murray, Serpentine, and Brunswick where there is about 450,000 

 acres suitable for irrigation.. On these rivers the scheme is for ten 

 weirs to conserve in all about 7000 million cubic feet. 



The scheme was hung up last year through the failure in the 

 Upper House of the State Parliament of a Government measure to 

 grant all water rights in the rivers concerned to the State 

 authorities. This obstacle, however, is not expected to be perma- 

 nent. 



Queensland. 



In Queensland, where cattle-breeding and sugar-growing are 

 the chief farming industries, irrigation has been tried to a certain 

 extent among the sugar canes, though the rainfall is heavier in 

 these more tropical latitudes, and irrigation is therefore not so 

 necessary. In the Bowen and Lower Burdekin cane districts 

 especially the annual rainfall is not adequate as a general rule; 

 consequently, it has been found necessary to irrigate pretty freely. 

 In the Bundaberg district only a few of the large growers went in 

 for irrigation, whereas in the Lower Burdekin and Bowen districts 

 the number of irrigators and the areas irrigated are fairly large. 



The irrigation plants on Bingera, Fairymead, and Qunaba 

 plantations (Bundaberg), and on Pioneer and Kalamia Estates 

 (Lower Burdekin) are on a somewhat elaborate scale. In the 

 Bowen district the water is raised from the Don River and Euri 

 Creek by means of centrifugal pumps driven by oil engines, and 

 distributed over the land through galvanised iron piping. The 

 crops raised comprise citrus and tropical fruits and vegetables. 



