LXVI. REVIEW OF WATER CONSERVATION IN N.S.W. 
A REVIEW or WATER CONSERVATION in NEW 
SOUTH WALES. 
By L. A. B. WADE, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E. 
[Read before the Engineering Section of the Royal Society of N.S. Wales, 
July 20, 1903. | et a 
A COMPARISON of the rainfall of Australia with that of 
other continents, shews it to be the most arid portion of 
the globe. The map of Australia at the end of this paper, 
shews the areas over which the annual average is less than 
10 inches, less than 20 inches, and over 20 inches. Country 
with less than 20 inches of rainfall is considered as “‘arid”’ 
by the hydrographers of the United States Geological 
Survey, and taking the same classification, it follows that 
of the three million square miles included in Australia, two 
millions are arid. The State of New South Wales includes 
a part of the arid area, and the development of this area 
for agricultural or pastoral purposes must depend on the 
utilization of the water of the Murray River watershed, 
and the artesian water where available. The areas of the 
watershed and the artesian basin are both shewn on the 
map. Before any large and comprehensive schemes for 
appropriating these supplies can be carried out, it is 
evidently necessary that the physiographical conditions of 
the country should be studied, and this requires that obser- 
vations should be made and recorded during considerable 
periods of time. It will be interesting to briefly review 
the progress made by the pioneer officials who cleared the 
way for the constructing engineers of the present time. 
The first work for conserving water appears to have been 
done in 1869 when several small tanks were excavated in 
the drier localities. The first artesian bore was driven in 
