Loading Rice in Rverina

The irrigation industry is evolving and changing constantly

The one thing most people and reports don't explain is that water, our most precious resource belonged to all Australians not very long ago
Water was worthless, as in had zero dollars and cents worth
Water was allocated in a way that worked very well for over 100years
Australia was the only developed country in the world that water wasn't privately owned by anyone until the late 1990's
Irrigation allocations were tied to the land and were not tradable, hence the allocation waa worthless
In the Victorian part of the system, the allocation was paid for in full whether used or not
The cost of the water was tied to the amount it cost to maintain and run the irrigation system
Any water not used was lost and returned to the storage for next season's allocation
When water was allocated each year the very first allocations went to the towns, then the following years allocation in full and then the current season allocations and then the sales allocation
When the allocation was like this the dams stayed relatively full in most seasons
But there was a big push from big business to get there grubby paws onto Australia's allocation
And first thing to change was to make water tradable
As a result big business now owns water in Australia
The biggest single owner of Australian irrigation water is the Chinese government
Remember that before water trading happened, no one actually owned the water, there was a allocation based on the water actually held in storages
Today with water been owned and now tradable every drop of water available is used each year and the storages are run down each season
As a result it only takes one dry year to put the irrigation system into drought
Once in drought, irrigation farmers then pay huge prices for water that not so long ago was there every year
So big business now controls the water in the Murray Darling basin and it is in big business best interest to keep the storages empty to keep their returns on investments high
All this from something that was worthless only 30 years ago
And it goes on a lot more than my short explanation
But we are here to talk about trucks

Amd yes last years rice season waa huge, the year before was very wet so water was plentiful
Irrigation was put in to smooth out mother natures unpredictability, today's irrigation exacerbates mother natures unpredictability

Anyway I'll just keep on farming as best as I can, people really need to stop quoting everything they Google as fact, especially when they have no first hand knowledge about the subject

Paul

Thanks Paul

The thing that stands out is we do not have a limitless supply and it has to be managed. Up to us to keep informed to at least see what the government is doing to avoid large (foreign?) monopolies developing or finishing up in an Aral Sea situation..
Lang

100% correct Lang, the problem now is big corporations own the majority of Australias irrigation water

We need to remember that this has only been this way for a very short time

Im Victoria it all started to change in 1987, and spiralled out of control in the early part of this century

I cannot comment on other states as much, Queensland is different as the irrigation districts are very spread out and not connected like NSW, Vic and SA

Yes the very northern end is connected to QLD but the coastal systems supplying the coastal farms are not connected to each other or the Murray Darling basin

The irrigation systems in the Murray Darling are a real mess today and this is a result of big business interference

Penny Wongs family own huge amounts of water, as does Eddy Maguire and no doubt lots of other influential families and organizations
Anyway

Back to trucks for me

Paul

Water allocation is a contentious subject and full of misinformation, such as penny wong's family owning water ( that was an outright lie made by Barnaby Joyce under parliament’s privilege) and a lot of obfuscation on facts. What no one wants to mention is the increased salinity levels which are directly linked to water flow and the massive dieback of trees on the river banks which cause erosion, also directly linked to water flow, and so much more.
I will add here my father worked at csiro soils division most of his life, as did I for a short time
Gumpy

The problems started when they separated the water rights from the land. It meant people started trading in it and superannuation companies and other investors made it worse.
Then it got decoupled from the rivers. You could by water from the Murumbidgee but take delivery from the Goulburn with little regard to how much water was available at each location.
When we were out of town we had a "High Reliability Water Right" for our 2 acre block. As an "agricultural user" we were charged over $300 a year to maintain Lake Eppalock however some years we were not allowed any water as they added Bendigo, then Ballarat town supplies to that dam, initially as emergency supplies but now required daily. Then there is the environmental water meaning that last time I looked less than 2% of the irrigation dam called Lake Eppalock is actually available to the farmers who paid for it to be built and for it's maintenance. An added stupidity is when it overflowed during the 2022 floods that didn't count as an environmental flow but came out of the farmer's allocations the following year as 100% of unused envrionmental flows carry over. The lake would have needed to be 130% full to meet town and environmental requirements. It doesn't leave much room for irrigation water!

grumpy gumpy wrote:

Water allocation is a contentious subject and full of misinformation, such as penny wong's family owning water ( that was an outright lie made by Barnaby Joyce under parliament’s privilege) and a lot of obfuscation on facts. What no one wants to mention is the increased salinity levels which are directly linked to water flow and the massive dieback of trees on the river banks which cause erosion, also directly linked to water flow, and so much more.
I will add here my father worked at csiro soils division most of his life, as did I for a short time
Gumpy

hang on a moment 
The salt was there long before any human walked the face of the earth

Remember that huge areas of the basin were a inland sea that was slowly evaporated away 

The sections of the Murray that have cliffs were the natural dam 

Just like everything else there is a lot of conjecture 

The sea evaporated away and the salt was left

In wet really wet winters the water table rises the salt gets taken to the surface, when the water evaporates over the warmer summer months the salt is left behind

This was happening long before irrigation and white mans arrival

Irrigation if done incorrectly can make it worse as the over watering and pooling of water sokesinto the water table
 
Laser grading and a better understanding has reversed these effects in some of the worst effected areas

After all, water is costly, no one is going to waste it bringing the water tables up

There is very strict controls on were and when rice can be planted

Despite what a lot of people think, gravity flood irrigation has been proven, when done correctly to be the most efficient way to apply water and also the most environmentally friendly way 

We have no way of knowing who most of the irrigation water holders are as this information isn't available to the public

We do know who the largest water holders are as when the likes of "Timber corp" and "Olive corp" went belly up, it was common knowledge who purchased the water

Also Australia has the Ord and a Chinese consortium bought the entire stage 3 release maybr 15 years ago 

Paul 
 

You’ve missed the point on the salt. This is an example of obfuscation (not having a go at you here, you’ve been misinformed ) the salt has always been there, yes but flushing it out to sea is what has changed , lesser flows mean the salt isn’t being moved, same as pumping ground water raises the salt levels to the surface. These are documented facts that have been researched for decades
Gumpy

Sorry your wrong

Pumping ground water lowers the water table and as such the salt travels down the soil profile

The flows are longer and of greater volume than before settlement

Before irrigation the Murray and the Darling ran dry many times

If there was no water storages the Murray would of not flowed passed Echuca by 2001 and stayed not flowing for several years

The fact that there is weirs to maintain flow levels and there are dams to regulate the is what keeps these rivers flowing in extended dry times

Flow levels at the mouth of the Murray are very high these days and the media are now reporting that the toxic bloom issues South Australia are now facing on their coast line are a direct result of high flows of fresh water over extended periods

If this is true, we can thank the green movement

So the same amount of water moves down the same river as is meant to, the flooding is just controlled over farmers paddocks

I guess since the Snowy mountains scheme there is a lot more water, however this will stop shortly when "Snowy 2.0" comes on line

I think you'll find the flows are greater than ever with the huge almond groves and the boom in grapes that has now burst its bubble

Flows got so large to supply these the irrigation authorities are now restricting the amounts and times that flows can happen as erosion of the banks was becoming a issue
in spots

The salt flows probably peaked in the 70's and have been on a steady decline ever since

Who remembers trying to drink Adelaides water back then, it wasn't pleasant

I guess the biggest issue is everyone wants their cut of pie and there's a lot more people demanding a extra slice and the pie isn't getting any bigger

Then the rogues turn up with water saving plans, wanting to pipe this channel, line that channel, put this door in change that and claim it's all going to save water
Yet there is no check before hand or after the works to see if these millions actually achieve anything

The answers aren't simple, everyone thinks they have the answer and eveyone else is wrong

Just look at this thread

What we do know for certain is it worked much better before big business and super funds got involved

I guess eventually it will sort it's self

Salt flows are much lower than they have ever been and environmental flows are much higher than they have ever been

Most farmers don't let any water leave their farms and capture 100% of irrigation run off and water only leaves in big rain fall events

Off quota water has vanished, off quota was used as flood mitigation, when a floods coming farmers were encouraged to water large areas of ground to reduce the floods size
The water still cost money, but the water didn't come off the farmers allocation

The whole shows a mess with everyone pushing their own barrow these days and no one seems to actually care about whats good for Australia, rather were the pollies can get votes amd who can make a quick buck

Salt is real but it isn't much of a issue these days and the flows are less than ever

Paul

From what I observe there is no shortage of water over the whole of Australia in general. It’s just that it’s not managed efficiently. If the Bradfield scheme had been implemented way back when we would have water Australia wide. But unfortunately politicians can only see to the next election. Any project no matter when where what or why, will never be cheaper than it is now.

From what I’ve heard from dairy farmers along the Murray before the barrarge was built in times of low flow salt water would back up to Murray’s Bridge but you can’t knock that down or someone wouldn’t have freshwater to drink and like Paul said if it wasn’t for the wiers and dams all the big flows would be gone straight out to sea
If development is so bad put it back the way it was and let it all go starting at the mouth and all the way up to the headwaters and see what happens to a heap of community’s and the country’s economy
As to who owns the irrigation licenses and allocations there are people holding allocation that don’t even own property to irrigate it is just an investment that they lease back to irrigators
Being right at the headwaters of the Murray Darling even before we started stealing all the water out of the system it had to be a big flood for our water to make it to Bourke let alone the sea
I’ll get back in my box now

Cheers Bluey