Water flows for farmers
AN INNOVATIVE water project at Inverloch has saved at least 12 jobs and five farms, all contributing millions to South Gippsland’s economy.
Drought-stricken farmers faced with dwindling stockwater have united to design and build a water system project that has saved their businesses and guaranteed their employees’ families an income.
The farmers credit South Gippsland Water for allowing them access to water in the decommissioned Inverloch water basin. The basin once supplied town water to Inverloch but has not done so for at least 25 years.
The untreated water is unsuitable for town use and was not being used, while the farmers were crying out for water in the midst of the worst drought to hit the area since 1967.
Inverloch dairy farmer Mick Hughes, a member of the group of farmers known as the Inverloch Farm Cluster, said the water was a life saver.
“If we had not been able to access this, there would be 2100 cows, possibly young stock, trucked off farm and possibly of loss of farm income for the foreseeable future,” he said.
“It would be devastating for the farmers involved and there would be 12 employees across the cluster and 17 families that would have had loss of income and their jobs in jeopardy.”
The water project cost the farmers $140,000 to buy 15km of pipe and three pumps, and they worked a total of 550 hours over 12 days to lay the pipe from the basin north of Inverloch across farms to Pound Creek Road.
The system pumps water from the water basin to a transfer dam. From there the water is pumped to other farms, with pipes filling another transfer dam and pumps sending water to other properties.
The farmers have been accessing the water for two weeks and plan to continue to access it until rainfall fills their dams.
“As soon as the dams fill we will be pulling it all up. It’s not a permanent solution,” Mr Hughes said.
Pound Creek farmer Jamie Nicholls said the scheme would not have been possible without South Gippsland Water approving access to the basin.
“South Gippsland Water saved our businesses. There is no doubt about it,” he said.
“We had no rain from the middle of September to the end of October and that is usually our wettest six weeks.”
After being faced with dry weather in the summer of 2014-15, the Inverloch farmers expanded their dams, but did not think they would not receive enough rain to fill them.
“We’ve virtually only had two days of runoff for the last 12 months but we’ve not had decent runoff for the last two years,” Mr Hughes said.
Recent rain merely “freshened the grass up”, Mr Hughes said, and heavy rain resulting in runoff is desperately needed.
Inverloch farmer Warren Redmond said, “On the first of December, I was walking around the bottom of a dam.”
Mr Nicholls said such extended drought was typically unheard of in South Gippsland.
The farm cluster was formed following the GippsDairy Tactics for Dry Times water meeting in December 2015.
The farmers calculated how much water was required for their cattle, and the extensive and specific design work resulted in a complex pumping design.
South Gippsland Water managing director Philippe du Plessis said, “It is important for there to be a collective approach to water use and drought relief across the region. We are keen to be innovative and supportive of the community in these dry times”.
GippsDairy director Edwin Vandenberg said the Inverloch farmers were grateful to South Gippsland Water for allowing access to the water and preventing what could have been a terrible situation.
“Cluster members have certainly learnt from the lessons of a drier 2014, followed by no rainfall runoff in 2015,” he said.
“They are already thinking and planning their on farm water catchment and storage to prevent this issue from ever happening again on their farms.”
The Inverloch farmers are among a band of farms from Inverloch to Yanakie that have been missing out on rain while properties around Leongatha have been receiving more rain.
Team work: from left, dairy farmers Mick Hughes, Jamie Nicholls, Warren Redmond, GippsDairy director Edwin Vandenberg, Kevin Gannon and Darren Nicholls inspect a pump used to transfer water to drought-stricken farmers.
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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Feb 16 2016. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
