The Challenge of Arid Lands 
Research and Development 
for the Benefit of Mankind 
B. T. DICKSON 
Member, UNESCO Advisory Committee on Arid 
Zone Research, Canberra, Australia 
It is a pleasure on this occasion to remind the people of this 
part of the United States that we in Australia owe much to the 
wonderful work done by George and William Benjamin Chaffey, 
those Canadian brothers who established Etiwanda as an irriga- 
tion unit on the Santa Fé trail and later Ontario in California. 
In 1886-87 they went to Australia to begin the irrigation programs 
on the Murray. Where before had been arid land supporting 
rabbits and a scattering of sheep, Renmark and Mildura de- 
veloped the thriving centers of production. 
Let us examine the title ‘““The Challenge of Arid Land Research 
and Development for the Benefit of Mankind.” First, it is a 
challenge, and a challenge indicates a contest or struggle, so that 
sooner or later one ought to take a side. If we look at the end of 
the title, which reads ‘“‘for the Benefit of Mankind,” there ought 
not to be much doubt about which is the side to take. 
Arid lands, wherever they may be located, especially if they 
are hot, are characterised by intense blue skies by day, immense 
distances in a shimmering atmosphere, sparse vegetation and still 
sparser animal and human population, with a limited and erratic 
rainfall of less than 10 inches in a good year. Yet we recall that 
great civilizations were developed in arid areas crossed by great 
rivers, the Tigris-Euphrates, the Indus, and the Nile. 
47 
