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The inaugural national conference of the YIN was held in Griffith NSW on the 7th & 8th August 2003. The conference was a stand out success with over 140 delegates participating over the 2 days, coming from as far afield as WA, Qld and SA. 160 people attended the broader industry dinner held on the 7th of August where comedienne Jean Kittson entertained guest with a very funny, and very insightful, look at the irrigation industry, as well as some more general issues.
Further details of the National Conference are available in the "National Conference" page of this website.
The past 12 months have been a very hectic time for Young Irrigation Network members. On the back of the 2002 August launch has been the tour of Hillston, a visit to the Snowy region and a tour of the Murray River operations. The most recent expedition was a visit to the big smoke- Sydney.
The trip to Sydney covered a number of points of interest in order to cater for both large area and horticulture irrigators.
After an early start and an uneventful trip into the heart of Sydney, we met up with local member Adrian Piccoli for afternoon tea at Parliament House. We took the opportunity to visit the House of Reps, which was much quieter and smaller than many of us expected. We then adjourned to the Jubilee Room for presentations from Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) and Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL).
AQIS inspector, Alan Johnson, explained the role of AQIS in preventing the spread of pest and disease into and out of Australia. AQIS staff inspect produce and containers carrying produce, entering and leaving Australia and provide certificates. AQIS barrier staff are also present at International Arrivals Air Terminals to prevent the import of un-authorised plant and animal material and are also stationed at the post office checking mail entering from overseas.
Horticulture Australia Limited representative Alison Turnbull presented a thorough overview of HAL. All horticulture growers pay a levy on fruit, nut and vegetable produce delivered. These levies go towards marketing of horticultural products and future research and development projects. HAL also provide financial assistance for study tours and conferences, as well as actively encouraging women and young people in horticulture through the WinHort program.
Day two started with an early breakfast and bus departure of 7.30. This was no earlier than that of the previous morning but on the back of a sleepless night of partying in Sydney, proved a challenge which was bravely met by all on the trip. The Sydney Flemington markets were the reason for such an early start. Here we strolled through both the grower & agents sheds, dodging some of the reported 6000 forklifts on site and tasting some of the exotic fruits and vegetables for sale. When we asked why were not obliged to wear those bright orange safety vests, we were told that they would only give the forklift drivers something to aim at (which was good as it would have clashed with what I was wearing). The only disappointing aspect of Flemington was the lack of flowers presented to me after I informed them that the flower market was a "must see".
From Flemington we made our way to Wollongong to visit the Grain Corp terminal and BHP Steelworks at Port Kembla.
The Grain Corp terminal, commissioned in 1989, was built to handle, for export, a wide range of grains including wheat, barley, oats, canola, maize and sorghum. While the preferred receival method is by rail, the terminal can also receive grain by road. Train wagons pass through the trackshed at 1.2km/hr dumping grain as they pass over the receival hopper. Over 2000 tonnes of grain can be dumped in 45 minutes and up to six trains can be handled in a day.
From the trackshed the grain is weighed as it is transported by conveyors to the huge grain storage bins. There are 30 bins on site (22 bins can hold 10,000 tonnes each and eight have a 5,000 tonne capacity). From the bins, grain is transported onto waiting ships by conveyors and passing through one of the two shiploaders on site. The largest ship to be loaded at the terminal took 3 days to transfer 120,000 tonnes. On average, ships are loaded in 10-12 hours (35,000 tonnes) by 4 people. One of the highlights of the tour of the Grain Corp Terminal was the view of Port Kembla from the top of the conveyors, where we saw a coal ship brought into and turned in the port by tug boats. Some of us were reluctant to use the lift (it had been playing up all week) and were thinking about sliding down one of the 400 meter long conveyors, but thought better of it when told we wouldn’t be able to stop till we hit the wall at great speed.
After a great lunch which was kindly supplied by Grain Corp, we made our way to BHP steel works, where we were wowed by the size, expense and precision of equipment. After viewing the introductory and safety induction videos and being supplied with our safety equipment (Yes! We finally got to wear the orange vests), we were guided round the 800ha site. This included a drive by the blast furnaces, a walk into the BOS furnace shed, viewing continuous casting of foot think steel slabs (BHP were the world leaders in twin casting) and witnessing the cutting of the red hot slabs into 12 meter lengths.
From here we walked through the longest industrial building in the southern hemisphere (1km long), where we saw where slabs are reheated, then passed through rollers converting the 12 meter slabs into sheets of metal 80 meters long and 25 mm thick. The sheets then pass through a set of 6 rollers to become 1 km long and 2.5 mm thick. The sheets are rolled up and strapped for storage on site or transport and delivery. After this we bade a fond farewell to Wollongong and made our way to Goulburn where we could have an easy start to Burrinjuck the next day. The highlight of Goulburn- I finally got some flowers.
For many the visit to Burrinjuck Dam was the realisation of a long time dream (previously planned visits were cancelled). No one was disappointed. After some spectacular views driving into Burrinjuck village we were shown over the Burrinjuck Dam Wall. This included a 230 meter stroll walk across the wall, access into the wall, checking out the spill gates and the mechanisms which move the gates as well as the valves at the bottom of the wall and walking through a tunnel at the base of the wall.
Some points of interest: Burrinjuck is a "mass gravity dam" with means it is not actually anchored into the walls of the valley and relies on its own weight to hold the water back. The wall is 98 meters high (from the river base to the top), is 58 meters wide at the base, 9 meters wide at the top, and has had 3 upgrades since construction started in 1907. The most recent upgrade was an extension built in 1995, which raised the top of the wall by 13.6 meters. This extension did not increase the capacity of the dam but rather made the wall capable of dealing with a 1 in 100,000 year flood event (pretty good insurance for $63 million). The extension is hollow with mesh windows on the upstream side which will allow water to fill the chamber. The theory- this water will then act as a weight to help hold the wall down in such a flood event.
On the day we were there the dam was 7.3% full. While this is not encouraging, we were told that in 1997 it was also 7% full. That year the 13,000 square km catchment area received 150 mm of rain in 24 hours. In the six days following this rain the dam went from 7 % to 63% full and 4 weeks later was 97%. This just proves that the irrigation forecast doesn’t take that long to change.
After a BBQ lunch and a quick game of touch footy against the kids of Burrinjuck (the kids won) we made our way back home. Over all we saw some amazing things and had great fun. I would like to thank everyone who attended and encourage anyone aged between 18 and 35, and involved in any aspect of the irrigation industry to register with the Young Irrigation Network.
Written by Iva Quarisa
The fish way at Lake Mulwala and a discussion about Hume Dam’s role in providing water for irrigation were the highlights of a Young Irrigation Network (YIN) tour of the Murray district last week. A group of 20 young people from the Murray and Murrumbidgee areas took part in the tour, which included a visit to the hydro station on the Mulwala Canal at The Drop, near Finley, as well as stops at Yarrawonga, Hume Dam and Dartmouth Dam.
The tour provided a chance for young people working in different parts of the irrigation industry to socialise, and to find out more about the issues, which affect the operation of the irrigation system, and the future of the industry. The fish way, or elevator, on the wall of the weir at Yarrawonga was the most popular stop, with the prospect of seeing a 100lb cod fuelling enthusiasm. But with river levels so low there were few fish on the move.
Goulburn Murray Water’s senior reservoir operator Colin Fitzpatrick said the fish way was providing a valuable opportunity to study the movement of fish to upstream waters, and several groups were involved in research at the site. He said he believed the number of native fish traveling upstream had increased in recent years, with the development of the Torrumbarry fish ladder. There was also a much higher proportion of native fish, and the total number of carp appeared to have declined.
The tour moved on to Albury, where Hume Dam had risen to nine per cent of capacity following recent rain, although it was still possible to see trees on the floor of the dam which were usually well below the water line. State Water officer Graham Hind said that while snow in the mountains often seemed to promise good inflows into Hume, only a small percentage of the dam’s water actually came from snow. There was little connection between a good snow season and good inflows, he said. However the dam could fill quickly in a three month period, given good rain, while Dartmouth may take up to six years to refill, because of its much smaller catchment area. “Hume can fill and be drawn down, then refill in 12 months, and it’s where most of the water for irrigation comes from,” Mr Hind said. “Dartmouth is really a dam of last resort.” Dartmouth had climbed to 29% of capacity on the day of the tour, and the water was still up to 125 meters deep in places.
Mitta Valley landholder Andrew Bowran also joined the tour in the Dartmouth area, explaining how high flows out of Dartmouth created problems for landholders in the valley.
On the 20th & 21st February 2003 the network carried out it's second field trip, this time an overnight tour for 52 people to the upper reaches of the Murrumbidgee River (including the Tumut Choke), Blowering Dam, Tumut 3 Power Station, Lake Eucambene, the Snowy Hydro Visitors Centre in Cooma and the MDBC in Canberra.
The trip was a terrific success with the network participants thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to gain an understanding of the Snowy operations as well as some of the political and policy aspects of the industry. The trip was generously supported by major sponsor the Murray Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) as well as Primary Industries Bank of Australia (PIBA).
With ravaging bushfires, talk of continued dry weather and record low dam levels members of the Young Irrigation Network eagerly departed on the postponed Snowy Tour, to see it all for themselves.
First stop of the day was at Tumut to learn more about the "Tumut River choke" and problems faced by those farmers with river frontage. Representatives of the Tumut Land Holders Group and Department of Land and Water Conservation (DLWC) met us down at the river. From the DLWC representatives we heard about Blowering dam, the Tumut river and the management of both of these. An annual budget of around $850,000 is spent on controlling Willow, European carp and river-bank erosion.
The main concern of farmers with river frontage was the erosion caused by flows greater than 6000 ML/day. During the irrigation season, flows can be as high as 9300 ML/day. These high flows have been attributed to the widening of the river of up to 20mts on each side. Some of the lower lying properties are flooded in times of high flows, so restricting their ability to farm.
The Tumut Land Holders Group would like to see a steady summer flow of 6000ML/day be maintained, but understand that demands in the MIA exceed this. A number of solutions have been put forward to address this problem including on-route storages, running water from Tantangra through Burrinjuck, piping supply, straightening the flow of the river, purchase of the land or paying some form of compensation. DLWC are working on a solution which should be out in the not too distant future.
At the time we were there Blowering dam was at 2.3% with riparian supplies flowing out of the dam. Blowering dam is an earthern structure 807 metres long, 112 mts high, x mts wide at the base and 9 mts wide at the top. After a quick look from the top of Blowering dam wall we made our way to Tumut 3 Power Station.
Tumut 3 Power Station is the largest power station in the Snowy Mountains Scheme and is situated on the Tumut River. Its most distinguishing feature is the six BIG white pipes feeding water out of the dam into the power station. These pipes are 5.6 metres in diameter (that’s big enough to fit a double decker bus in) and carry a lot of water. Another feature of Tumut 3 is it’s ability to use these pipes to pump water back up into the reservoir in order to reuse the water to make more power.
On day 2 of the tour we spent a rainy morning at the Snowy Mountains Information Centre learning more about Snowy Hydro and how the whole Snowy Hydro Electric Scheme is managed. This management can become quite complicated especially when environmental flows, are considered taken into consideration.
From Cooma we travelled to Canberra, the last official stop of the day, to hear Scott Keyworth from MDBC give a summary of "the Living Murray" document. This was a very enlightening session. The Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council are charged with the job of determining the volume of water required to improve the health of the Murray River system.
There are three volume reference points: these being 350ML, 750ML and 1500 ML per year. Once the decision on which of these volumes should be returned to the environment is made, a range of other questions is then raised. These include:
- Where will this water come from?
- How will it be used and managed?
- How do minimise a particular region or group from being disadvantaged?
- What impacts will this have on current water users (such as irrigation, industry)
- What socio-economic impacts will this have on rural communities?
While there are many questions still unanswered, be assured that this issue will not go away and will affect us all. There will be regional information sessions and feedback meetings in the future which will be a great way to become informed and make sure we have our say.
Overall the Snowy tour was thoroughly enjoyable and informative even though the last stop of the day, Burrinjuck Dam, had to be missed due to heavy rains.
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