Chapter 3
I Background
II Early European Settlements
III Assessment Of Available Water Resources
IV Water Supplies For Goldmining Development
V Irrigation Development
i Channels, weirs and barrages
ii Measuring farm supplies - the Dethridge wheel
iii Early pumping schemes
iv Irrigation techniques
v Drainage of irrigated land
vi Recharge of aquifer
vii Soil-plant-water relationships
viii Carry-over storages and security of supply
VI Farm And Stock Water Supplies
VII Urban Water Supplies
VIII Wastewater Management And Treatment
IX Water Quality Management
X Limnological And Water Quality Research
XI New Techniques In Water Resource Planning And Management
XII Legislation
XIII Conclusion
XIV List Of Abbreviations
XV Acknowledgements
XVI Plantations-high Productivity Resources
References
Index
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Early pumping schemes
The Chaffey-designed pumping stations at Mildura were the largest in the world at the time, with 100 cm centrifugal pumps driven directly from the engines and each costing $200,000. Tangye Bros, the builders, were 'so sceptical that they refused to accept responsibility, branding them with the name of the daring inventor and featuring themselves merely as manufacturers'. The pumps remained in service for more than 50 years.One of the closer settlement areas developed after the first World War was the Merbein district on the Murray River, a few km downstream of Mildura. This was serviced by a steam driven pumping plant with an intake pipe 2 m in diameter, lifting the water some 30 m, and claimed to be the largest in the southern hemisphere at the time.
In 1920, Humphrey pumps, then unique in design, were purchased for use at Cobdogla, a new settlement on the Murray in South Australia. Each pump delivered 1,800 l/s and the station supplied water to 12,000 ha. The difficulties of installing such new and unusual pumps 20,000 km distant from the manufacturers were finally solved by W. B. Joyner after many fruitless months, carefully documented by Joyner in a 100,000 word technical history.
People in Bright Sparcs - Chaffey, George; Joyner, W. B.
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Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |  |
© 1988 Print Edition page 162, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/159.html