Soil Conservation Authority

1959-60 VICTORIA SOIL CONSERVATION AUTHORITY TENTH ANNUAL REPORT FOR YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE, 1959 PHESEXTF.D TO BOTH Hon;Es OF PAltLL\~IEXT PL'H.SUAXT TO ACT Xo. 11:17:'. A. C. BROOKS. GOVERNMENT PRINTER, MELBOURNE. No. 14.-[:!s. !ld.]-!l!J:l:!/59. SOIL (ONSERVATION AUTHORITY Chairman: G. T. THOMPSON, L.S., A.M.J.E. (Aust.) Members: R. G. DoWNES, M.Agr.Sc., M.A.I.A.S. R. G. THOMAS, M.Agr.Sc., M.A.I.A.S. Secretary: ARTHCR TIDD This is sound conservation farming. Note the cloddy nature of the ploughed ground and how the natural drainage line has been kept untouched to prevent soil erosion. The rising ground has ample tree cover and shade trees have been left for stock while the paddock is under pasture. SOIL CONSERVAT ION AUTHORITY TENTH ANNU AL REPORT FOR TH E YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE, 1959 Under t.hr provi ;-; JOll S of t.hc ~oil Conscrv;ltion and Lancl Utilization Act the Soil Conservation Authority ltas the hononr to pn:,.;ent to Parliament its Annual Heport for the vear end ed :10th June, l\>!)~l. ·' Tt is vvith an undcrstanc1abl(' Jee1ing of pride lmt with no self-comphwcncv tlwt the A11thorit)' prcscnt0 it0 Ten th Annual Hcpmt. The first decadr of (~ndeavour to control erosion and to introduce the i(lra.l of conserving the soil to att.ain l1igh pPrmanent production, seen in retro spect, has made a considerable~ impression on those nn':l.s whPre the Authority has been able to concentrate effort . .Much has 1H"en lcurnccl from resen rclt _to cletennine Lest land use, many engineering worh> have been completed, thous;:Lnds o( landholders have been hclpecl. and manv organizations havr henefitPd lJv aclvisorv scrvice.c;, but the real task is onl y lwgnn. ft could not be otherwise in a SLilt' which coverc; nearly 88,000 square miles of \ \~ idely , diffcr1ncr topography, soils and dimn tv:.;. · e 4 Rnfficient time h;u; past->ml Jwwever, to lw rea.ssured that tlw hasir planning, organization and methods of attack are sound and require only developing to ultimately provide an efficient t'eonomic Koil conservatioll serviee throughout tlw ;State. CO-OPEHATION I~ SOIL CONSEHVATION. A proper conception of the nature ami value of correct land use and conservation, both to the individual farmers and the community, can only be obtained when large areas have been planned and treated by groups of landholders. To achieve such a worthy objective requires the eo-operation of landholders with each other and with the Shire and Government Department~:~. Such group action has now been stimulated in several places by the Authority, and these projects are sufficiently advanced for an appreciation to be made of their community benefit quite apart from their value to the participating landholders. Group action leads to more community benefit, particularly with regard to the protection it affords publie utilities. It also enables a more concentrated and effective use of the Authority's technical officers. It provides a much more convincing demonstration of the value of proper land use and conservation to people in other parts of the district ; it increases the value of the land. From the landholders' point of view there are some definite advantagell. There is a :,;ignificant increase in produetivity ; the general improvement of land use over large areas reduces the need for non-produetive erosion control works and hence a big proportion of money spent in a group scheme is for land improvement which will, by the inereaRed productivity, nltimately pay for itself. At present there is no legislative provision for groupR of landholders to combine for the purpose of achieving a eo-ordinated and co-operative plan for soil conservation and improvement of land use as there i~:~, for example, for drainage schemes. An_v group schemes at present operating are the result of the Authority's offir·ers personally convincing each individual that stwh a sebeme would be beneficial. rrhis is not too diilicult where small numbers of landholders are involved, hut where larger numbers are concerned, much time must he spent in trving to convince the pot<:ntially non-co-opemtiv<' rwrson whose farm so freqttPntly seem.c.:; to m·cnpy a kt'Y pm;ition in tiH' pr·oposed plan. Bt>camw the advantagPs of gronp aetion are becoming more apparent, it ,«Pcms now that smne legislative provit:>ion might he made to encourage groups of people on their own initiative to band together for the implementation of conservation schemes for common benefit if a ~:~nfticiently large majority so desires. Furthermore, since group action is of far more value to the government, both Municipal and State. and to the whole community, they eould reasonablv except to receive a somewhat greater degree of assistance from the V V (lovemment. than they can get as individual landholden;. Any inereased ( ~overnnwnt assistanee to such groups would be more than offset bv the lmvered cost of maintenance to publie utilities and the general inereafl(' of produ<:tivity. Fmtlwrmore, group pi'Ojects develop within thest> area>'< a mueh hetter cornmunity spirit and a pride in their t1istriets and its achievements. The Authority is enquiring int<J the requirernents of legislation for such purposes with a view to submitting proposals to the Uovernment for its eonsideration and in this respect Soil Conservation District Advisory Committees have been consulted. From the reaetion to the proposals by landholder representatives on these Committee.'l, the Authority believes that the rural community will generally support such a seheme. 5 An example of good land use in the Mina Valley. Forest cover has been retained on the steep slopes and grazing is confined to the lower slopes and fla ts. Care of the catchments is a vital aspect of soil conservation. CONSER.YA TION IN WATER SUPPLY CATCHl\lEKTN. The volume of work u":socia.tcd with the Authority's responsibility to ensure that water supply catchments throughout the State are not impaired is increasing rapidly. This work involves not only the preliminary study of catchments to provide suitable information for the Land Utilization Advisory Council to consider before advising the Authority on the desirability of proclaiming a catchment. but also the subs<:quent investigations to provide the basic data for making determinations of land-use after the catchment has been proclaimed. The determination of land-use is not a matter to be undertaken lightly and must only be made on the basis of snffieient information concerning the physic;al characteristics of the catchment. The proclamation of a catchment enables the Authority to maintain a close watch on the area to see that no radical changes of land-use which could be contrary to its proper conservation are initiated. Few d(·terminations have yet been made, but with the increasing volume of information being obtained it will be poi-isible to make more cleterminations and thus define the pattern of land-use in the ca.tchmenLs in the public interest. The Authority's policy and public duty is to approach its respon:->ibil ity with a conservative attitude. So far eight catc hment~ have been proclaimed and these are listed in Appendix A. ln addition the Authority, on the recommendation of the Land t'tilization Advisory Council, is in the process of having six more catchments proclaimed. These catchments are the B.omsey, Lancefield, \Voodend, :Vlaced.on and Upper Nfacedon town water supply catchments and the Wimmera catchment above the offtake to the Wimmera- Mallee water supply system. During the year the Land Utilization Ad vi ::;ory Council was a.::; ked to consider la.nd-u::;e in part of the H.ocJdancls Catchment, beGaLLSE' there was a propo::;al that this area be removed from State Forest Reserve and made available for settlement. 8uch a radical change of land use in a water supply catchment requires most careful Gonsideration to determine its possible long-t.Prm advantage:-; or clisadvantagPs in the public interest. (i After a thorough inspection and consideration of information concerning the present and proposed forms of land use, the Council recommended to the Authority that the area be retained for timber production and that the Authority approach t he owners of freehold land in this part of the catchment with a view to coneeting the existing erosion and making improvements to their present methods of land use. It further recommended that the Forests Commission endeavour to increase the fore::;t productivity in the area. In the catchments to the Upper Mnrrav the A.uthority has had the advice not only of the Land Utilization Advisory Council. but also the Bogong High Plains Soil Conservation District Advisory Committee. During the year t his Committee recommended drastic reduction of stocking on those parts of the High Plains around lVIounts Hotham, Loch and St. Bernarcl. The number of cattle in these areas has been reduced bv half and for the whole of the High "Plains the permissible 11\lnlbers for the coming seasor{ total 6,730. At the request of the Committee the Allthority ·will provide more supervision of cattle numbers and grazing location throughout the season. In l\Jarch. 1958, the Government decided ··that the use of any lands in Victoria above 4,500 ft. elevation in the Upper lVIurrav Catchment and contiguom areas, excluding timber stands of commercial lumber, shall hr a matter solely for decision hy the Soil Conservation Authority of this State ". The Upper Murray Catchment has been interprete(l to mean the area draining to the lVIurray River above Yarrawonga and " contiguous " areas to inch1de adjoining high land catchments to southern flowing streams.

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