WATER CONSERVATION FOR IRRIGATION AND OTHER PURPOSES. VII. 
The conditions of the rivers which flow westward from 
the Dividing Range can be seen from the map alone 
to be in complete contrast with those of the rivers which 
flow to the east coast. While the courses of the latter are 
short and their declivity rapid, the former have to flow 
many hundreds of miles before their waters reach the river 
Murray, and hundreds of miles further before they reach 
the ocean. The catchment areas of these western rivers 
gradually become less effective till their waters reach the 
great central plains of the State, which so far from being 
a catchment area in the ordinary sense of the term, might 
fairly be described as a great depleting area. The rainfall 
also diminishes as the distance from the Dividing Range 
increases, so that the country which has the greatest need 
for water and which is best fitted for its distribution and 
its use for irrigation is the place where there is a diminished 
and diminishing supply in therivers. ‘The courses of these 
rivers through the great central plains are tortuous, and 
with the solitary exception of the Murray, they become 
shallower and more contracted, with their distance from 
the Dividing Range, till in some cases, as for instance the 
Lachlan, the Macquarie, and the Gwydir, they cease to 
exist as defined rivers. The result of these conditions is 
that when the rivers are low the lower landholders fre- 
quently receive no water whatever, and when the rivers 
are high the lower lands are inundated to the extent of 
many hundreds of thousands of acres. This flooding of the 
lower lands on the rivers of the Central and Western 
Divisions of the State is generally very beneficial. It is, 
in fact, natural irrigation on an extensive scale, but the 
economic results viewed from a national standpoint are 
unsatisfactory in the last degree. That large areas of 
pasturage are greatly benefited by the flood waters is beyond 
question; but on the other hand it has to be borne in mind 
that in producing this pasturage there is a deplorable waste 
