Irrigation Journal Winter 2023

CONTRACTORS' CORNER

Relationships key to business success

IN THIS ISSUE:

PRIVATE PIPELINE MOVES WATER BETWEEN TWO RIVERS CHALLENGES TO GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT THE POWER OF RAINWATER HARVESTING

URBAN

Artificial intelligence improves irrigation in urban parks

Queensland council's progressive recycled water scheme

Lessons from Australia's largest solar diesel hybrid pumping system

DRIVEN SKIDS & TRAILERS

HWR SERIES

VORTEX SERIES

WET PRIME SERIES

VERTICAL TURBINES

SUBMERSIBLE MOTORS

END SUCTION CENTRIFUGAL

DRIVES & PROTECTION

CLEANWATER CENTRIFUGAL

VR SERIES

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ON THE FRONT COVER: A privately funded 17 km pipeline transfers water between two rivers in Tasmania. Photo shows Alan Brazendale standing next to a stainless-steel metering and ground entry assembly. Read about the scheme on page 46.

WELCOME

CHAIR’S MESSAGE

As Dave and his executive team implement the decisions made at the strategic planning day, the methods for delivering on Irrigation Australia’s commitment to improving member value are starting to take shape.

New eyes bring new insights, and this is exactly what is happening now. It’s not that big changes are called for, or even being talked about, but the leadership team is reassessing the existing plans and programs. The team’s focus remains firmly on generating value that is relevant and meaningful for members. There is much to do, but progress is already underway.

Irrigation Australia Conference

Have you marked the 1–7 September in your diary for the 2024 Irrigation Australia Conference and Exhibition and ICID 9th Asian Regional Conference in Sydney? If not, I urge you to save the date for what promises to be an outstanding event. We have taken feedback from the Adelaide conference into account, resulting in improvements such as a streamlined abstract process, enhanced advertising efforts and a real push for more invited experts to actively participate in sessions.

The conference content goes beyond conventional learning and explores cutting-edge industry practices, while the international participants provide a global yardstick for knowledge exchange. The exhibition allows suppliers to showcase their latest innovations, and the additional space in Sydney will allow us to create more engaging experiences within the exhibition hall.

As industry specialists, we constantly seek to validate and demonstrate just how technical, innovative and professional the irrigation industry is. These events hold immense value for the local market as they offer a platform for showcasing our industry. May I reiterate that the conference and expo is well worth attending?

Training

Speaking of professionalism, Irrigation Australia is at the forefront, leading the industry by offering an unprecedented number of qualifications and certified professionals. We pride ourselves on being the top provider of training tailored to the requirements of the water industry. Our team has put considerable effort into streamlining the student experience, and despite rising costs, we have successfully sustained a hands-on training approach, ensuring our students receive valuable practical experience.

Government funding

I also think it’s important to highlight some of the other industry wins that often get overshadowed by the many messages promoting new training opportunities. Over the past four years, Irrigation Australia has secured over $1 million in government funding for initiatives designed to improve our industry, with training subsidies being a large component of this. This is an enormous member benefit, and I know Dave is very focussed on increasing both the level of financial support and the profile of the sector.

Volunteer recognition

Another important focus for us has been acknowledging the invaluable contributions of people who volunteer their skills, expertise and time to our industry. The work of these dedicated individuals is often overlooked and their efforts go largely unsung. They don’t seek any personal gain or recognition, which makes it all the more important that we give them just that. We are exploring additional avenues to recognise the many individuals who contribute time to support the industry, and to celebrate their achievements. To this end, you can expect to see some surveys being released in the near future. These surveys will help us better understand what forms of recognition would be most valuable to you and your businesses.

I hope you enjoy reading about some of the latest irrigation innovations and case studies from around the country in this this edition of the Journal.

Simon Treptow Chair

FROM THE CEO

G’day again.

We are thrilled to present the winter issue of the Journal . Thanks to all contributors and our excellent editor, Eve White. Much has been happening at Irrigation Australia and I’ll give you a quick run down here.

When I arrived last year, I was shown a ceremonial gong within the office. It was explained to me that it would be hit every time we made a significant achievement. I’m pleased to say the gong has been seeing a bit of action lately, and we’re going to make more of an effort to convey some of our successes to you. There is nothing more satisfying than getting a thumbs up after resolving problems for a student or member.

Front of mind for us are the wins in training scheduling and customer response times. We’ve implemented an enquiry help desk and performance targets, a detailed business improvement plan for our RTO, and many improvements to member management.

I don’t think the organisation has crowed enough in the past about the work it’s done to attract government investment in our sector. The most recent example is our contract with the Queensland Government to deliver the Certificate III Irrigation Technology with User Choice funding support. In essence, this means over $6,000 towards each qualification for most applicants, and likely more than $100,000 per year to support the industry.

To meet this growing demand, we need more trainers, and we’ll soon be advertising for another Brisbane-

based employee and contractors nationally. We will provide funding for the right people with strong technical backgrounds to complete their training and assessment qualifications. If you’ve been considering a career in training, now is a great time to get on board. I was recently involved in some Queensland Government water planning activities as well as a day at OzWater, which focussed on leaders and broader industry strategy. Viewing these activities through an irrigation lens has been interesting – while I’m by no means an expert on much, I can see some consistent trends coming through. In no particular order, these are:

- Climate. The next big dry is coming, which offers both threats and opportunities. There’s a lot of talk about alternative water sources. Climate resilience must be incorporated into planning, water and energy efficiency as an essential rather than a ‘nice to have’.

- Skilling. We must think beyond training and focus on attracting and retaining the right people and transferring tacit knowledge when people leave a business or the workforce.

- Asset and infrastructure management. Organisations have aging assets and are under-investing in renewal. We need to perfect the art of asset optimisation: replacing something the day before it breaks. Assets must be fit for purpose and place, and everything digital.

- Social value. We need to find ways of dealing with apparently unstoppable growth and its consequences, including the

affordability of utilities. We are seeing a growing need to build and measure social value.

- Indigenous cultural values. There is growing recognition worldwide of the importance of incorporating indigenous cultural values and importantly the knowledge of First Nations peoples into planning.

- Water management reform. We need water management reform and national leadership to drive it. Without a clear path towards a new National Water Initiative and a body with sound consultation framework to support its implementation, we are missing a trick.

All these are, and will continue to be, in the back of our minds as we build new member programs.

We always welcome feedback; if we are missing something fundamental, or you would like to express your opinion on any of these topics, reach out to me at dave.cameron@irrigation.org.au

Dave Cameron CEO

TECHNOLOGY: RURAL

SOIL MOISTURE MONITORING: A SELECTION GUIDE

SNAPSHOT

• Soil moisture sensors can be broadly grouped into two categories: water potential sensors and water content sensors.

• Water potential sensors measure how hard it is to remove moisture from the soil whereas water content sensors measure the water content of the soil.

• This article outlines the common types of water potential and soil moisture sensors and which scenarios each is best suited to.

With the range of technology available these days it can be hard to know which soil moisture sensors are the best fit for different crops and soil types. This article provides an overview of the different types of soil moisture sensor available.

Scheduling irrigation

To be used effectively, soil moisture sensors must be:

• used in an irrigation shift that delivers water evenly

• installed correctly and placed in an area that is representative of the crop being grown

• used in combination with other data, since soil moisture sensors only measure a tiny area of an irrigation shift. Other information might come from evaporationbased scheduling, soil moisture monitoring or grower observation.

Sensor types

Sensors can be broadly grouped into two categories:

• water potential sensors, such as tensiometers and granular matrix sensors

• water content sensors that give a percentage or relative content of soil moisture.

Water potential sensors. These sensors measure how hard it is to remove water from the soil, providing the best indication of available water for plants. Soil type and water content influence the suction pressure required to remove water from the soil, but a monitored sensor, which is recorded and graphed, will show the sharp fall that indicates water has become hard for a plant to access. Questions when choosing a water potential sensor:

• Do they accurately read in the desired range for the crop in which they are used?

• Do they react quickly enough to be useful for the crop being monitored?

The two most common types of water potential sensors are tensiometers and granular matrix sensors, such as gypsum block and watermark sensors.

Tensiometers are the most responsive water potential sensor, and they require the most care and maintenance. There are two types of tensiometer tip: one is used in sands, and the other in clays and loams. Use the appropriate tip to see quick reactions to changes in water status.

Capacitance sensors measure the water content of a soil using the time or frequency of a pulse travelling between or returning to electrodes. Photo credit: Sentek Technologies.

Tensiometers are the most responsive water potential sensor, and they require the most care and maintenance. Photo credit: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development WA.

Tensiometers work by measuring suction pressure at the tensiometer's porous tip. Water is drawn out of or into the tip, depending on water availability. This creates a suction pressure representing the suction force required for a plant to obtain water from the soil. Measurements can be done by manually reading a vacuum gauge, or automatically, using a logging pressure transducer.

To maintain tensiometers, check for bubbles and refill the fluid used to create the vacuum within the tensiometer.

Granular matrix sensors pass a current across a porous media – usually gypsum – with the electrical resistance changing proportionally to the amount of water drawn in

and out of the media. They are generally a low cost, low maintenance sensor. Once installed they often last many years without intervention.

The reactivity of granular matrix sensors to changes in water status is the biggest limitation to their use. Accuracy is somewhat poor and can vary greatly – between 10 and 25 per cent of the actual measurement.

Most granular matrix sensors have low accuracy at low tension (0–10 kilopascals). This is an issue if the soil type being measured has limited plant available water and the crop is water sensitive, such as vegetables grown on coarse sands and heavier clays.

Depending on the porous material and the construction of the sensor, the water seems to move in and out of these sensors more slowly than with tensiometers. There tends to be a lag in the sensor wetting and drying in response to the soil. The lag tends to be greater as the soil dries, as opposed to rewetting, and therefore may lead to an underestimation of plant stress on the drying cycle.

Water content sensors. These sensors measure the water content of a soil using the time or frequency of a pulse travelling between or returning to electrodes. The most common types are capacitance and time or frequency domain. Most sensors are accurate within 2–3 per cent of the actual soil moisture.

Capacitance sensors generally measure several depths at intervals of 10 to 20 cm and come in lengths from 40 to 180 cm. Multiple depth measurement produces useful information on water movement through the soil profile and relative moisture content of the soil at different depths.

Granular matrix sensors like this GDot sensor pass a current across a porous medium – usually gypsum – with the electrical resistance changing proportionally to the amount of water drawn in and out of the media. Photo credit: Greenbrain.

TECHNOLOGY: RURAL

The limitation with most capacitance sensors is that they measure only a very small volume of soil outside the access tube or wall of the sensor. Correct installation must maximise soil contact and ensure water is not allowed to move preferentially down the outside of the sensor. If this occurs, the measurements will not reflect the situation in the undisturbed soil away from the sensor. The method of measurement means these sensors are affected by salts in the soil: salts increase electrical conductivity which means the sensor inaccurately overestimates soil moisture.

True time domain reflectometry (TDR) sensors are very accurate but require quite complex and expensive measurement equipment. A similar, less expensive alternative are sensors that measure using water content reflectometry (WCR) and time domain transmissometry (TDT). This type of sensor generally consists of two or three metal prongs between 5 and 30 cm long that are pushed into the side of a soil pit to measure the undisturbed soil. The measurement extends to about 3 to 6 cm around the sensor, giving a larger volume of soil measured (0.3 to 8 L). With correct installation into undisturbed soil and the larger volume of soil being measured, data from these sensors will be more representative of the whole area compared with capacitance sensors. They are also less affected by salts in the soil.

Accurate estimation of water availability with time or frequency and capacitance sensors will only be achieved by calibration with soil tension measurements. If calibration is not done, estimation of water availability relies on interpretation of the change in curve produced by taking regular measurements and graphing them.

Choosing a sensor

Choosing a soil moisture monitoring system can be difficult. Systems that deliver data to a website or local computer are readily available and are a better option than a manually read sensor.

The following questions may help assess the suitability of a system for a given crop:

• Is the grower more concerned with available water (water potential) or the movement of water in the soil?

• Do the sensors react well in the soil type and range of soil water in which the crops are being grown?

• Is accuracy important? How sensitive is the crop being monitored? Will a delay in identifying the lower level of soil moisture and stress point result in yield loss?

• Is the grower prepared to maintain sensors (e.g. check for air in tensiometers)?

• Are the graphs or values easily understood and is support available to interpret the data from the system?

• Is the system adaptable? If the grower changes their mind about the type of sensor they want, will the logger take different probes?

• Does the information automatically log to a computer system, or does it have to be manually read?

Systems that deliver data to a website or local computer are readily available and are a better option than a manually read sensor. Photo credit: Sentek Technologies. Soil and crop type Tensiometer Granular matrix Gypsum block

• If the system is web based, is the site reliable so the grower can depend on data being available when needed?

TABLE 1. GUIDE TO SELECTING A WATER POTENTIAL SENSOR ACCORDING TO SOIL AND CROP TYPE.

Sensor Type

Pros

Water content sensors Capacitance Fast response time

Very accurate if site calibrated

Less expensive than TDR

Less affected by salinity than TDR

TDR Easy to log data

Indicates salinity levels

Indicates bulk density

Soil/site calibration usually not needed

Water potential sensors Tensiometer Widely used

Relatively inexpensive

Not affected by salinity

Easy to use

Granular matrix Accurate in medium to fine soils

Inexpensive

Data can be logged and retrieved remotely

Continuous measurement at same location

Gypsum block Inexpensive

Low power use

Easy to log data

Many growers may already own manual tensiometers. Often these can be retrofitted with pressure transducers and can be logged using commercial computer packages. If soil moisture or capacitance sensors are preferred, the shape and pattern of data measured is most important. Base the choice of these types of probes on the following criteria:

• Copes with salinity: Is the probe likely to be affected by salts in the soil and does the probe still work in these conditions?

• Repeatability: Will the reading be the same if soil moisture has not changed so graphs will be clear and simple?

• Volume of soil measured: What volume of soil is the probe measuring? Is a larger volume desirable?

• Temperature and salinity measures: Some soil moisture probes also measure temperature and electrical conductivity so would these be useful to track?

• Ease of installation: What assistance is there to ensure proper installation, such as an instruction manual, video or demonstration?

• Robustness: How robust are the probes? Are they likely to be damaged and can they be easily repaired?

Cons

Small sample area

Dependent on local soil structure

Can be inconsistent

Complex installation

Can be affected by salinity

Site calibration needed

Interpreting the signal requires complex electronics and algorithms

Uses more energy than a capacitance sensor

Complex installation

Expensive

Small sample area

Indicates when to irrigate but not how much

Not good in fine-textured soils

Slow response time to soil water changes

Requires regular maintenance

Relatively slow response time to soil water changes

Less accurate in sandy soils

Sensitive to salinity

Needs to be calibrated for each soil type

Imperfect accuracy

Affected by salinity

Small sample area

Sensors degrade over time

Summary

Crop water sensitivity and soil type should guide decisions about soil moisture sensors, unless you want a system that measures both soil moisture content and plant available water. Remember that soil monitoring is just one tool to assist irrigation scheduling. Other steps to deliver the best irrigation outcome include using evaporation or evapotranspiration as a reference, knowing the soil type and crop, and using good irrigation design to deliver water evenly.

Acknowledgment. This article was originally published on the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development WA website and is reprinted here with permission. © State of Western Australia (Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, WA).

Rohan Prince

TABLE 2. PROS AND CONS OF DIFFERENT SENSOR TYPES

TECHNOLOGY: URBAN

HOW THE INTERNET OF THINGS IS HELPING SPORT CLUBS WITH IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT

SNAPSHOT

• A project run by the Brisbane Sustainability Agency together with Andres Jaramillo Consulting is investigating how the Internet of Things (IoT) can be used to help community sports field managers better understand soil moisture and water and energy consumption.

• The first step was to conduct irrigation assessments to collect baseline data. A combination of poor design, maintenance and operation was detected in most of the fields in the study.

• Following the initial assessment, the clubs were equipped with soil sensors, weather stations and flow meters.

• The data collected by these IoT devices was brought together in an online dashboard to provide insights about irrigation.

• The first 12 months of the project have shown that: soil types vary widely; staff training is vital; end-user interfaces must be user friendly and input data should be automated; and integrating new systems with those already in place is challenging.

Sports field management challenges

Community sports clubs are an important part of our community. They are typically run by volunteers who take time out of their own lives to give back to their community. For these volunteers, the management of club revenue and expenses is an ongoing challenge. Two major ongoing costs for clubs are electricity and water bills.

Sports clubs also face challenges related to the loss of knowledge about club operations due to volunteer attrition. This is particularly problematic for irrigation management where volunteers with varied levels of understanding or training are responsible for decisions about watering and general upkeep of playing surfaces.

Project background

A project in Brisbane is investigating how the Internet of Things (IoT) could be used to help community sports organisations measure, monitor and reduce their resource consumption to better manage their sports fields.

The IoT fundamentally describes physical objects with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet or other communication networks.

The project, run by The Brisbane Sustainability Agency (BSA), a subsidiary company of the Brisbane City Council, is supported by a Queensland Government Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport grant. The first phase of the project took place between October 2022 and February 2023.

BSA partnered with AFL Queensland Limited, Queensland Cricket, Queensland Rugby League, Yurika Energy and Andres Jaramillo Consulting to trial an IoT in community sports fields to develop a thorough understanding of soil health, soil moisture content and energy consumption. Six clubs trialled the technology, with the intention to expand learnings to other community clubs throughout Brisbane and build capability for clubs to reduce their water and energy utility bills while maintaining the fields in playable conditions.

Collecting baseline data

The first step was to determine irrigation system performance baselines for the participating fields. Brisbane City Council provided some sport field audit information from the Resilient Clubs Support Program initiative. However, in most cases, information on turf heath and chemical analysis of soils was provided but information about irrigation system performance was unavailable. Background information was also available on annual soil nutritional requirements, annual turf maintenance budget and turf maintenance specifications.

Staff from BSA and the sports clubs actively participated in the data collection for the irrigation evaluation.

TECHNOLOGY: URBAN

Soil was sampled for texture and pH during the application efficiency evaluation.

The equipment

The irrigation systems of all the sports clubs that took part in the pilot project are automatically operated by irrigation controllers. Most clubs have schedules of 10 to 15 minutes three to four times a week during spring and autumn and four to five days during summer. Application rates vary greatly between fields.

The clubs were equipped with soil sensors (LoraWAN certified) for soil moisture, temperature and electrical conductivity, weather stations (LoraWAN wireless multisensory stations), and flow meters where they were not already installed. The data collected by the IoT devices is being brought together into a simple, legible, online dashboard application, providing field-specific insights into:

• current soil moisture levels

• recent irrigation activities

• recommended irrigation requirements

• turf water consumption

• current weather conditions

• forecast weather conditions.

• energy consumption.

BSA engaged Andres Jaramillo Consulting, an irrigation engineer and an Irrigation Australia–certified irrigation agronomist, to evaluate the project sites. An on-site evaluation of a sport field irrigation system uses selected measurements to describe the system’s performance and management and identifies causes of poor performance and how these might be addressed.

Irrigation assessments were conducted at each site to measure how well the system is operating and how much water is applied per irrigation turn. The catch-can method was used to calculate precipitation rates and the Distribution Uniformity (DU). Soil texture and soil pH testing was also done at the sites where the soil moisture sensors were to be installed. The DU values ranged from 45 per cent to 67 per cent, values that are considered poor and outside best irrigation management parameters.

Weekly application rates were estimated to provide 50 to 60 per cent of the turf water consumed. Turf is a resilient crop that can survive with limited soil moisture for long periods of time; it goes dormant as opposed to permanently wilting. While this attribute is valuable during times of drought, sports field turf is best kept above 50 per cent of the soil water holding capacity as excessively dry soil contributes to poor turf health, which can pose higher risk of injuries to players due to the hard surface.

A combination of poor design, poor maintenance and poor operation was detected in most of the fields. Before installing the equipment, recommendations to remedy such inefficiencies were made to the individual clubs.

Catch can tests were carried out at each sports field.

The technology

The sports clubs participating in the program are likely to already have access to water and energy data monitoring systems and some irrigation automation. However, each of these systems exists in isolation. The project aims to consolidate the data available through these systems, with other publicly available data, such as weather station data, to identify new opportunities for clubs to optimise their water and energy use through their field maintenance activities. The newly installed platform centralises available data from existing systems.

What has the project shown so far?

With the first 12 months underway, early learnings from the project have included:

• sports fields across a city can have highly variable soil types and compositions between fields and within a single field

• staff training is needed when clubs adopt new technologies. This can be challenging in volunteer-led clubs with a high turnover

• end-user interfaces need to be very simple and cater to a broad range of users, and the input data required to generate insights must be automated

• integrating new systems with those already in place

– irrigation system controllers – is also challenging as some irrigation companies have property blocks around compatibility and data exchange.

• soil moisture sensors are now providing precise, localised data. The trial is monitoring whether this level of precision is valuable for sports clubs, or whether freely available data for evapotranspiration and precipitation derived

The importance of monitoring and audits

Greenkeepers should continually inspect water meter records to compare actual water use with their irrigation schedule and determine if there are inexplicable losses, which can indicate leaks. Nonetheless, a full third-party performance audit of the irrigation system, including the pumping system, should be done every three to five years to ensure the system is working properly.

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A full third-party performance audit of irrigation systems should be done very three to five years.

SMART TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES EFFICIENCY IN PRODUCTION NURSERY

SNAPSHOT

• A pilot smart production nursery has been established as part of a Hort Innovation project.

• Citrus production nursery Golden Grove Nursery is the demonstration site and the aim is to help growers understand digital environmental monitoring and its use in business decision making and environmental stewardship.

• Artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and sensor technology are being used to inform decision making.

• The implementation includes a free-standing weather station and a range of pH, temperature, soil moisture, weight, and electrical conductivity sensors to monitor water quality and leachate.

• Within months the nursery had reduced its water use by 30 per cent and made substantial labour savings, particularly in manual monitoring.

In a project run by Hort Innovation and funded by the National Landcare Program and nursery levy funding, a demonstration smart nursery has implemented innovative technology to reduce its water use by 30 per cent and substantially reduce the labour associated with monitoring.

Improving the productivity and environmental performance of nursery systems using technology, sensors and live data is referred to as smart farming. Information can come from in-field sensors, nursery cameras, onsite weather data and decision-support tools such as forecasting models or automated records.

The National Landcare Program and Hort Innovation have funded a pilot smart production nursery and are supporting the development of the Hitachi control tower, which provides growers with an integrated data platform to farm efficiently and demonstrate environmental best practice to their customers and compliance bodies.

The best nurseries have the best water

The demonstration site is Golden Grove Nursery, one of Australia’s leading citrus production nurseries. The nursery currently supplies over 200,000 nursery trees per year (with the capacity to provide 240,000 nursery trees) into the Queensland citrus industry and other fruit tree industries.

The project will help growers understand digital environmental monitoring and its use in business decision making and good environmental stewardship. Remote technology is being used to continuously monitor environmental indicators such as nutrient leaching, sediment run-off, water and energy use efficiency and more.

“The best production nurseries have the best water,” said Golden Grove Nursery Director Wayne Parr. “With this project we are using the power of data to improve our irrigation management processes which will, in turn, reduce the overheads of water usage, improve environmental outcomes, and ensure we maintain compliance with regulatory requirements.”

Improving labour efficiency is another critical area of focus; by adopting innovative technology, Wayne says, he hopes to create more streamlined nursery operations and growing practices. These new processes will help to reduce crop growth cycle times and provide commercial growers with a higher quality uniform crop.

Data-driven irrigation decisions

Artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and sensor technology are being used in the nursery to inform data-driven irrigation water management practices for sustainable, environmentally friendly food production. Golden Grove has installed an innovative combination of weight scales, soil moisture sensors, and analytics. This solution measures and assesses moisture content in the growing media of pots, as well as crop water use, to provide insights that inform practices such as irrigation and fertilisation decisions.

Nursery Director Wayne Parr has found that technology saves the nursery both water and labour.

The implementation includes a free-standing weather station to monitor the microclimate and a range of pH, temperature, soil moisture, weight, and electrical conductivity sensors to monitor water quality and leachate. Real-time sensor data, weather forecasts, and biophysical models are uploaded to the cloud and presented on one screen. The system enables nursery personnel to easily access depictions of predictive analytics such as irrigation requirements.

Real-time monitoring informs irrigation decisions

Generations of experience, instinct and know-how are now supplemented with real-time data-driven insights.

According to Wayne, the biggest labour saving has been in monitoring. Sensors have replaced bottles dipped into the dam and fingers poked into a pot. Water is automatically sampled and tested every 15 minutes, as opposed to the manual process Golden Grove has been undertaking twice a week for more than 30 years.

The live data has also enabled the nursery to dramatically improve its irrigation practices. Within months of implementation, the nursery reduced water use by 30 per cent, and along with this came a reduction in fertiliser and electricity consumption.

“We’re now able to monitor the irrigation systems daily and understand exactly when to water so we can avoid root damage and make sure the nutrient mix is just right,” said Parr. “We’ve already been able to identify and adjust for over watering during the winter months of 2022, and through this summer with irrigation much more firmly under control.”

Next steps

The next step is to install a hydrometer to provide information about plant stress and enable nursery staff to respond quickly by increasing the water supply when needed. The project has also just released a smart farming technology guide to assist horticulture producers thinking about using farm sensors and software, with sections on moisture sensors and irrigation water quality. It can be downloaded here

Information. To find out more about the smart nursery, visit the Hort Innovation website

Acknowledgments. Thanks to Hort Innovation for providing information and photos for this article.

Weight scales and a weather station provide insights that help inform irrigation decisions.

NEW PUMP SET AND CONTROL PANEL PROVIDE BIG BENEFITS TO COASTAL GOLF COURSE

SNAPSHOT

• Brown Brothers Engineers recently replaced the pumps and control panel at Warrnombool Golf Club

• The new system can be controlled remotely and has better safeguard mechanisms than the previous system, which was aging and needed regular maintenance.

• The panel is equipped with a variable speed drive for each pump, which enables the system to adjust to match demand, using a single pump or multiple pumps as needed.

The Warrnambool Golf Club in regional Victoria is situated on rolling sandy terrain on the edge of the scenic Shipwreck Coast. The club is notably recognised as the former stomping ground of PGA Tour professional Marc Leishman.

The golf course boasts spectacular elevated tee blocks, spacious tree-lined fairways, and the ever-present coastal sea breeze that adds to the challenge.

However, the club’s aging irrigation booster pump system was becoming increasingly maintenance intensive. To address this issue, Brown Brothers Engineers recently upgraded the system in conjunction with Shanahan Electric Motors. The upgrade has provided course staff with a more efficient and reliable irrigation system as well as improved control and monitoring capabilities.

Dam disasters and sleepless nights

The existing pump set needed frequent maintenance and the control panel was an older style build that did not provide the pump protection, useability and alerts that the golf course required. This presented several problems for the groundskeeping staff.

One issue was the high risk of a blowout leak that could potentially drain the entire dam onto the course, causing significant damage. This would also pose a huge problem as the dam serves as the main source of irrigation water for the course.

In the event of a blowout or burst pipe, the pressure would drop drastically and see the pump operating against ‘open head’, discharging water into the air. The existing control panel had no safeguard mechanism to register such a large pressure drop and ensure the pumps wouldn’t operate at such a high flow rate.

The system had suffered a blowout leak in 2021, and groundskeeping staff were keen to prevent this from reoccurring.

Additionally, almost every week, the pumps experienced airlocks that stopped the flow of water and halted irrigation. According to Brenton Clarke, course superintendent, “The old pumps had multiple issues that gave us many sleepless nights. Driving through the gates at 4:30 am and not seeing the water spray over the driveway would automatically make a gruelling day even more stressful.”

The Warrnambool Golf Club in regional Victoria is situated on rolling sandy terrain and nestled on the edge of the scenic Shipwreck Coast.

Access from anywhere: A remote solution

Warrnambool Golf Club contacted the staff at Shanahan Electric Motors, who consulted Brown Brothers Engineers about the problem.

As a solution, the team replaced the existing pumps with four Lowara e-SV vertical multistage pumps, which are renowned for their hydraulics and high-efficiency design and would provide maximum efficiency and lower lifecycle costs. These pumps fitted into the footprint of the previous pump system and, importantly, no major manifold works were required upon installation.

Alongside the new pumps, an INCA control panel was installed, providing better system control and useability than the existing model.

The panel is equipped with a Variable Speed Drive (VSD) for each pump. The pumps communicate with each other and adapt to varying demand levels. This means that the system can adjust to match demand, using a single pump or multiple pumps as needed.

A key benefit of the new custom panel was the ability for remote access through smartphones to view and monitor the status and operation of the pumps. This was of huge importance to groundskeeping staff who were initially unaware remote access was a possibility until it was highlighted during the planning phase.

This feature makes it far easier for the staff to monitor the system and respond quickly to issues. Brenton said, “I can constantly see if the pumps are running or whether the pressure is dropping. It’s even great when old gate valves don’t shut and we need to turn the water off. We no longer need to drive across the course, wasting time to turn the pumps off and squandering water; the ability to remotely shut off the pumps has alleviated this extra work.”

The INCA panel also provides superior safeguards and alert technology compared with its predecessor. The panel has a setting that registers a lower pressure than the pumps’ combined maximum flow rate and subsequently switches off the pumps. This gives staff peace of mind, as excessive flows or burst pipes will no longer lead to pump cavitation and failure.

Irrigation upgrade a hole-in-one

With the new irrigation booster pump system installed and fully operational, Warrnambool Golf Club now has a system that offers trouble-free pumping with less downtime and fewer callouts for maintenance and repairs. Another benefit is reduced power use, due to the efficiencies of the Lowara pumps with the combined benefits of the VSDs.

The club has experienced its first summer with the new system and has found it smooth sailing. When settings need changing, technicians at Brown Brothers Engineers and INCA Control can do it remotely since they can access the panel virtually.

This was no more evident than several weeks postinstallation when the club asked Brown Brothers Engineers to fine-tune and reduce pressure across the entire build. Staff were able to access the panel remotely from their Melbourne office and make the changes without any major maintenance shutdowns or visits to the course.

The upgrade highlights the significant benefits that investing in reliable pumps and modern technology can bring to golf courses and their irrigation capabilities.

Acknowledgments. This article was provided by Brown Brothers Engineers. Thanks to Warrnambool Golf Club for providing information and images for this article.

The dam serves as the main source of irrigation water for the golf course.

The team replaced the existing pumps with Lowara e-SV vertical multistage pumps. Left to right: Brenton Clarke, Ramanauskas (AKA Rama) Ben Owen, Matthew Jewell, Brent O’Rouke.

IRRIGATION DESIGN

Artificial intelligence and intelligent sprinkler system for urban parks

SNAPSHOT

• The Smart Urban Irrigation Project, conducted by Central Queensland University, investigated how technology could be used to optimise irrigation in two parks in Cairns.

• The solution involved real-time monitoring sensors, cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT).

• The dashboard provides visual representation of the data and sends alerts based on real-time events.

• The AI-powered ‘brain’ of the system allows it to make accurate automatic decisions for the whole irrigation system, based on actual parkland conditions.

• The system is saving the council 583 L of water per year per square metre of parkland.

• As an extension of the project, the CQU team has filed an Australian patent application for a sprinkler system with two-way communication for remote decision making.

Parklands are exposed to many variables that we can’t easily control, such as rainfall, temperature variations, winds, changes in humidity and public traffic.

Traditional irrigation systems that operate by pre-set timers can’t respond to actual weather conditions, soil moisture levels or the variable needs of plants. To address this problem, in 2019 researchers from Central Queensland University (CQU) and members of Cairns Regional Council initiated the Smart Urban Irrigation Project.

The project’s goals were:

• to improve and optimise irrigation in two of the city’s parks

• to reduce water consumption

• to adapt to the workload of park employees

• and to enhance the aesthetics of these popular urban green spaces.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THE ‘BRAIN’ OF THE SYSTEM

The solution involved real-time monitoring sensors, cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT). Core data is collected from the city’s parks, including soil water content, soil properties and plant characteristics. The data is channelled into a computer model that incorporates these and other variables that impact parkland conditions, including weather conditions and park management practices, according to CQU researchers Associate Professor Nanjappa Ashwath and Dr Biplob Ray.

The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) Nectar Research Cloud (Nectar), which is designed to help researchers access compute resources and to collaborate, played a key role in the project. The researchers used Nectar to collect nearly two years’ worth of data from the sensors, to develop the artificial intelligence (AI) system and to present the data on a dashboard.

The dashboard provides visual representation of the data and sends alerts based on real-time events including extremely low or high moisture content. The AI-powered ‘brain’ of the system allows it to make accurate automatic decisions for the whole irrigation system, based on actual parkland conditions.

WATER SAVINGS AND LESS RUNOFF

By deploying the smart irrigation system, the Cairns Regional Council has seen its sprinklers, which usually operate every day, turn off for nine days every month. The project team calculated that the council is saving 583 L of water per year per square metre of parkland. The smart irrigation system has proved to be a success, and the council is still using the technology.

Along with creating greener parks, saving water, and easing the workload of park employees, the reduction in water use means fewer chemicals are ending up in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

Members of the project team next to an excavator used for collecting soil samples and placing sensors/nodes under the soil. (Varun Chandrappa (PhD student, CQU), Dr Biplob Ray (Senior Lecturer, CQU), A/Prof Nanjappa Ashwath (CQU), Dan Mosbauer (Supervisor Parks Infrastructure, Cairns Regional Council), Dr Pramod Shrestha (Research Office, CQU) (L-R)). Photo courtesy of Dr Biplob Ray, CQU.

PATENT FILED FOR INTELLIGENT SPRINKLER SYSTEM

The automated irrigation system based on smart sensors and AI was a critical component of the project, but one key piece of information was missing: how the sprinkler system was actually watering each session.

“When a sprinkler system is operating, the water can go right or left based on the wind, or it can reach more or less area depending on the water pressure on the day,” explained Biplob, who led the project.

“Those variables currently can’t be measured because we don’t know what happened at a particular watering session at midnight. The only way to know is if the sprinkler could send that information back to the decision-making system.”

As an extension of the project, the CQU team has filed an Australian patent application for a new sprinkler system with two-way communication for improved remote decision making for irrigation. The application is currently in review, and the team is currently working with a Queensland Government manufacturing hub in Rockhampton to find a local manufacturer for the patented technology.

Brown

Featuring

• Maintain constant pressure

• Optimized pump efficiencies

• Longer lifetime and reduced lifecyle costs

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS

The project’s success has led to discussions about expanding the use of the new system to other locations that could benefit from more accurate irrigation, such as highvalue sporting fields and even agriculture.

The technology could help irrigate high-value sporting fields remotely and efficiently. For example, the intelligent sprinkler system would help a curator know, entirely remotely, whether irrigation has made a cricket pitch better for spin or pace. This would be a significant efficiency improvement from the current practice, which relies on a curator’s expert experience on the ground.

Acknowledgment. This article was originally published on the ARDC website and is reprinted here with minor amendments with permission.

Suitable for:

• Water Supply

• Pressure Boosting

• Irrigation

Configuration of IOT system, which uses Low Power Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) communication module to communicate with LoRaWAN IoT gateway, featuring Matthew Ritchie (The Makers Smart Community Resources, TAFE, Cairns). Photo courtesy of Dr Biplob Ray, CQU.

URBAN IRRIGATION DESIGN

Case study: New sprinklers for challenging conditions at Woodchester Reserve

The Woodchester Reserve is located in Nollamara, approximately 1 km from the Perth CBD, within the City of Stirling local government area. The reserve contains sporting grounds, including a long-jump pitch, and is home to the Tuart Hill Junior Soccer Club and other amateur football clubs.

During the City of Stirling’s 2020-2021 irrigation capital works program, the council recognised that the reserve’s irrigation system was due for replacement. This article outlines the design considerations and decisions that were made for this challenging site.

IRRIGATION DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

The Woodchester Reserve is elevated and experiences strong winds, which negatively affect irrigation uniformity and efficiency.

The existing irrigation system, installed 24 years ago, didn't include hydrozones, and its sprinklers were spaced at 18.5 m intervals. The sprinkler spacing, nozzle sizing and design made it difficult for staff to maintain turf quality.

Key questions considered by irrigation designers for the replacement system included:

• sprinkler type: Which model is best suited to this location?

• spacing requirements: What spacing will achieve the best water application rates?

• nozzle size: What nozzle size is appropriate for the windy conditions?

• reserve usage: What is the reserve predominantly used for?

• hydrozoning: How do water requirements differ across the reserve, and how can we manage this?

• installation process: How can we install the new system with minimal impact on the club users and the public?

MINIMISING DOWNTIME

The new system was installed in October 2020.

The mainline was designed to be installed off the playing surface so the club could continue to use the reserve while trenching works were undertaken to install the new mainline, cabling and solenoid valves. The club could continue using the old system, allowing for uninterrupted irrigation scheduling until the new system was commissioned.

The lateral lines installed were 75 mm PN10 poly pipe, which was ploughed in via a vibrating Moule plough. This meant no down time was needed, so the club could continue to train and hold weekend games throughout the project.

ADDRESSING CHALLENGING CONDITIONS

The new Hunter I50 (6’ pop-ups) with rear-opposing nozzles were chosen for the site after having been trialled at another coastal reserve. This nozzle design was found to be well suited to the windy conditions.

In addition, the radius throw of 13.1 m to 23.2 m and flow rate of 1.63 to 6.84 m3/hr (27.2 to114.1 lpm), enable the high-torque I-50 to cope with poor water quality and hard soil conditions, common challenges at several reserves within the City of Stirling.

Sprinkler spacing was changed to 15.5 m apart, which allowed consistent spacing across the sports fields. Catchcan tests that were performed after installation resulted in 23.6 mm per hour application, with 92 per cent DU, tested in 3 kph winds. The council aims for 85 per cent or above, so this was a great outcome.

Hunter I20 Ultra SS sprinklers, spaced at 10 m intervals, were used for the verge and perimeter hydrozones.

A Grundfos injection unit was also installed as part of the upgrade works, which now enables the Council to inject wetting agents while the system is irrigating during the night. This further helps the council to manage water allocations.

RELIABLE SYSTEM AND BETTER TURF QUALITY

To date, the upgrade has proven to be reliable, and parks and garden staff have also seen an improvement in the turf health and quality across the reserve.

Acknowledgment. This article was originally published in the Spring 2021 issue of the Overflow.

Installation of the mainline.

Catch-can tests showed a 23.6 mm per hour application, with 92 per cent DU – a great outcome.

THE BIG ISSUE

AUSTRALIA’S

GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES IN THE SPOTLIGHT

SNAPSHOT

• A paper by researchers at Flinders University has identified the major impediments to sustainable groundwater management in Australia.

• The authors asked groundwater professionals in government, research institutions and industry to assess the importance of 18 major challenges.

• The participants ranked the challenge of setting extraction limits as the greatest overall impediment to groundwater management.

• Other impediments ranked in the top five included: limited resources for groundwater investigation; the complexities of groundwater–surface water management; determining ecosystem needs; and trigger levels.

• The study concluded that we need to improve our approaches for managing water levels and surface water–groundwater interaction, and to make greater efforts to involve stakeholders in decision-making processes.

Australia’s annual groundwater extraction has risen dramatically over the last 40 years, driven by an increase in irrigation, and more recently by restrictions on surface water extractions. A recent paper by researchers at Flinders University has outlined 18 key issues that we must address to ensure the sustainable use of groundwater resources.

About the research

In Australia, approximately 70 per cent of groundwater extracted is used for agricultural or pastoral purposeslargely irrigation.

In many regions, irrigators started extracting groundwater before sophisticated groundwater management regimes were in place. Our understanding of groundwater use started changing in the 1990s as managers began to recognise that extraction rates were unsustainable. Governments subsequently started implementing strategies to manage groundwater extraction. However, in some areas the current levels of groundwater extraction remain unsustainable.

The authors of the recent paper asked groundwater professionals in government, research institutions, and private industry to assess the importance of 18 major impediments to groundwater management on a scale of 1 (not an impediment) to 5 (major impediment). Table 1 shows the 18 major impediments that were identified by the authors, and Figure 1 shows them ranked in order of importance as assessed by the groundwater experts who took part in the survey.

Data availability

Limited resources for groundwater investigations was ranked second overall as an impediment to sustainable groundwater management. Good management decisions should be based on good data. However, groundwater data is not available for all regions and data sets are split between different government agencies or in some cases managed by private entities.

Table 1. List of 18 identified challenges, categorised by subject area. Included in parentheses for each challenge is the overall ranking of the question based on the survey, and a short summary title.

Figure 1. Average score of different impediments from all respondents. Note the compressed scale of the y-axis. An average score of 1 means that all respondents rated the challenge as ‘not an impediment’, and an average score of 5 means that all respondents rated the challenge as a ‘major impediment’.

In some areas, monitoring may have taken place over long periods, but data is lacking for other periods. Monitoring also tends to be more extensive in regions with extensive groundwater use than areas where groundwater supports small communities (Figure 2). Difficulties in managing groundwater in data-poor areas was ranked 11th overall. Another issue is the complexity of groundwater systems. Simply increasing the density of monitoring networks is not enough. More sophisticated studies are needed to help us understand processes such as recharge and discharge, leakage between aquifers, and water requirements of groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs). Most existing studies of this type either lack precision and detail or cover only small geographic areas.

Setting extraction limits

The challenge of setting extraction limits to protect groundwater resources, GDEs and existing groundwater users was ranked as the greatest overall impediment to sustainable groundwater management.

In unconfined aquifers, the extraction limits are often set as a fraction of the recharge rate. The fraction of recharge that is allowed to be extracted is usually determined by the perceived value of GDEs within the area and their sensitivity to impact; however, these criteria are often subjective and poorly defined. Groundwater models, when available, are often used to determine extraction limits, but this involves assumptions about future patterns of groundwater use. Even with carefully determined regional limits, areas of intense development and groundwater drawdown may develop despite average use across a management area being relatively low.

In principle, groundwater response triggers, applied in combination with volumetric approaches, are a better approach for protecting ecosystems and other groundwater users. However, currently, the use of trigger levels in Australia is not very sophisticated and is rarely directly linked to the protection of particular ecosystems.

The success of this approach is determined by how well observation wells are distributed, selection of appropriate trigger levels, and the ability to observe and quickly respond when trigger levels are exceeded. Further, if water level decline is to be used to trigger management intervention, then distinguishing between possible causes (groundwater pumping, land use change, or a prolonged period of low rainfall) becomes important. This can be difficult. The difficulty in setting appropriate trigger levels was ranked as the fifth most important impediment to groundwater management.

Water quality

A major challenge for groundwater management is understanding when groundwater extraction can lead to deterioration in water quality due to changes in pH or salinity or movement of contaminants into water supply aquifers. Water quality issues have generally received less attention than water quantity issues, largely because there is often no obvious direct link between extraction and quality change. Understanding the link between groundwater extraction and water quality change and incorporating the knowledge into comprehensive and effective monitoring schemes and into the setting of sustainable extraction limits remains a challenge.

Groundwater dependent ecosystems

We don’t yet have a thorough understanding of which GDEs are dependent on groundwater, what their water needs are, and to what extent they depend on groundwater

Figure 2. Distribution of monitoring, irrigation, commercial and industrial and water supply bores across Australia. From Bureau of Meteorology (2022).

THE BIG ISSUE

versus surface water. Determining the impact of reduced water availability on GDEs is even more difficult. The lack of knowledge of ecosystem needs can be a major impediment to ensuring sustainable groundwater management and is perceived to be a much greater impediment than GDE identification and mapping (Figure 1).

Groundwater–surface water interaction

The issue of groundwater–surface water management ranked as the third biggest challenge to managing groundwater. In some areas, surface water and groundwater are managed separately even where there is a strong case for joint management.

While most groundwater plans consider impacts on surface water, few surface water plans consider connectivity to be significant or include any assessment of impacts of surface water diversions on groundwater systems. There are few examples of truly conjunctive groundwater – surface water management, and it is unclear how conjunctive management is best implemented.

Another issue is that surface water–groundwater connectivity is a function of time, and so the impact of pumping any bore on streamflow will depend upon the timescale being considered. In many catchments, past lack of consideration of groundwater – surface water interaction will mean that a future reduction in river flow due to groundwater pumping is yet to be realised. Many of the planning tools do not consider long time frames, and do not deal with legacy or future impacts.

Modelling groundwater futures under uncertainty

Groundwater models are one of the main tools used for forecasting future system states. They provide a means of collating available data and knowledge of how a groundwater system functions and integrating this information to provide predictions. However, uncertainty, ranked as the seventh most important impediment by the groundwater experts surveyed, is pervasive in groundwater modelling. Any model-based prediction is uncertain.

Uncertainty stems broadly from three sources: (1) uncertainty in characterising a groundwater system, (2) simplified representations of the real-world system and (3) uncertainty regarding future conditions. The first two points apply to most groundwater modelling problems. The latter is particularly pertinent where decision-support modelling is undertaken for groundwater management.

In some cases, irreducible uncertainty may be so high as to preclude the ability to determine whether management outcomes will be effective or not.

Decision-making institutions and processes

Decisions around groundwater governance are made by a combination of federal, state and territory governments and other organisations. Groundwater governance is a complex task in part due to the time and effort required for multiple organisations to address issues.

Lack of transparency in decision-making (ranked eighth) was considered a bigger impediment than complex arrangements (ranked 14th), and the authors believe

The issue of groundwater-surface water management ranked as the third biggest challenge facing groundwater management.

transparency would have ranked even higher if irrigators and other stakeholder groups had been included in the survey.

A transparent and inclusive approvals process provides a genuine opportunity for the best available science to be utilised and for potentially affected stakeholders to be appropriately consulted. In some jurisdictions, steps have been taken to ensure transparency in the decision-making process relating to groundwater entitlements.

Ultimately, the decision-making and project approval process can be improved through an increased community understanding of hydrogeological concepts, and consequently groundwater education has been identified as a significant challenge.

Conclusions

This study examined 18 challenges involved in sustainably managing groundwater allocations and conducted a survey of industry professionals to rank these challenges. Of the top six ranked challenges, identifying water requirements of groundwater dependent ecosystems is predominantly a gap in process understanding. Of the others, three are gaps in technical tools, one represents a gap in information, and one is a gap in implementation.

There is scope for improved approaches for managing water levels and surface water–groundwater interaction, and for improved involvement of stakeholders in decisionmaking processes. Importantly, the survey did not include irrigators and other water users. If it had, challenges related to implementation may have rated more highly.

DEFINITIONS

Unconfined aquifer. An unconfined aquifer is one where the water table occurs within the aquifer layer.

Groundwater recharge. The replenishment of an aquifer with water from the land surface. It is usually expressed as an average rate of mm of water per year, similar to precipitation.

Groundwater response trigger. A threshold used to regulate the amount of water that can be extracted sustainably from an aquifer. The trigger is typically based on a measurable indicator, such as the water level in a bore or an aquifer, that indicates when the system is starting to experience negative effects from groundwater extraction.

Acknowledgment. This is a summary of the paper ‘Sustainable management of groundwater extraction: An Australian perspective on current challenges’, by Peter Cook and colleagues, published in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies . The original paper is available here

IRRIGATION WATER SOURCES

The power of rainwater harvesting: Benefits for water conservation, infrastructure, environment and resilience

Rainwater harvesting captures rainfall from a roof and stores it in a rainwater tank for later use. It delivers benefits across the urban water cycle, including saving water, reducing stormwater volume and improving water quality for local waterways. Rainwater harvesting is widely used in Australia and benefits both the public and building owners. A quick look at the figures shows:

• some 2.68 million residential properties (27 per cent) used rainwater harvesting in 2020

• rainwater harvesting is the source of drinking water for 0.98 million properties, or about 2.4 million people1

• the rainwater harvesting yield in Sydney is about 79 GL annually; by comparison the annual capacity of the Sydney desalination plant is 90 GL2

• it is used in 100,000 non-residential buildings1

Conserving water and optimising public infrastructure investment

In urban areas where utility water is available, there is an efficiency to a combined utility water and rainwater harvesting system, which is greater than relying on either water source on its own. A small 3,000–5,000 L rainwater tank will meet most household needs as yield is mostly influenced by how the tank is used, as well as the size of the tank or the size of the roof. The combined system is efficient because it uses rainwater first for non-drinking-water uses and relies on utility water for water security in dry weather, allowing for less public water infrastructure investment and a smaller investment in tank size.3

A 5000 L rainwater tank in Sydney connected to 100m² of roof area and supplying toilets, washing machines and outdoor taps will reduce mains water demand by around 50,000 L per household annually, or about 40 per cent of household use. 4 A similar volume of stormwater can be diverted from each household, with greater volumes achievable from non-residential buildings. By making the most of these water sources, we can reduce the need for utility water and infrastructure, create cooler spaces, irrigate green infrastructure and replenish groundwater. Rainwater harvesting is both an efficient source of water and a means to help manage stormwater. Rainwater is delivered by nature directly to the building where it will be used, and stormwater is managed ‘at the source’ of potential problems.

Safeguarding the environment

Rainwater harvesting storages are an important infrastructure asset because stormwater is one of our most difficult urban challenges. When our cities grow, we convert natural surfaces into impervious concrete and roofs. We concentrate rainwater into gutters and drains, creating a large volume of fast-moving, polluted water that is dangerous to people and buildings, and damages our natural waterways. Runoff from small areas of directly connected impervious surfaces (<5 per cent of a catchment) will do irreparable damage to local waterways 5 . Rainwater harvesting reduces volumes of stormwater runoff, treats pollutants in stormwater runoff and creates opportunities for urban cooling and groundwater replenishment 6 . It thus offers a practical solution to help address a stormwater urban infrastructure problem valued at $1.5 billion by 2030 in South Australia 7 and is an engineering solution recognised by Engineers Australia in the Australian Rainfall and Runoff Guidelines 2019 4

Resilience

Large, centralised infrastructure systems are vulnerable because a system fault will directly affect all users. If there is an ongoing loss of electricity, contamination or failure of the water supply due to bushfires and droughts, failure of a treatment plant; or cybercrime affecting chemical levels in treated water, then most customers will be directly affected.

In contrast, decentralised systems, such as rainwater harvesting systems, are more resilient to shocks because while some units will be directly affected, they are not connected to the rest of the system. The combination of utility water and rainwater harvesting provides greater system resilience.

Rainwater harvesting is more reliable in a drought than traditional surface storage reservoirs because roofs are impervious surfaces that will generate runoff from a few millimetres of rain. In a severe drought 100 mm of rain may be required to wet the soil before any runoff can occur in a surface storage catchment.

Managing the rainwater harvesting system

Rainwater Harvesting Australia and Urban Water Cycle Solutions published a Design Specification for residential rainwater harvesting in 2018 to manage rainwater harvesting as a system. Each part of the system, including the roof, the gutters, the downpipes, the tank, the pump and the bypass, and how the rainwater is used, can be managed to create multiple safeguards against illness and to maximise yields, water efficiency and the efficient operation of the system. The Design Specification is based on a detailed and comprehensive understanding of rainwater harvesting literature in Australia. Following the design advice will support a well-maintained, low risk source of good quality water from rainwater harvesting. The Design Specification

should be a starting point for most rainwater harvesting systems in Australia. Click here for a copy of the Rainwater Harvesting Design Specification.

REFERENCES

1 Professor Peter Coombes. (2021). Review of the potential for cross connection and backflow from properties with rainwater harvesting. Newcastle: Urban Water Cycle Solutions

2 Coombes, P., & Smit, M. (2019). Greater Sydney Alternative Water Plan. Newcastle: Urban Water Cycle Solutions

3 Coombes, P., Smit, M., & Macdonald, G. (2016). Resolving boundary conditions in economic analysis of distributed solutions for water cycle management. Australian Journal of Water Resources, Vol 20, 11-29.

4 Coombes, P J; Barry, Michael; Smit, Michael. (2018). Systems Analysis and Big Data reveals Economic Efficiency of Solutions at Multiples Scales. OzWater 2018. Australian Water Association

5 Rossrakesh, S., Walsh, C., Fletcher, T., Matic, V., Bos, D., & Burns, M. (2012). Ensuring Protection of Little Stringybark Creek - Evidence for a proposed design standard for new developments. The University of Melbourne.

6 Coombes, P. J., Roso, S., & Editors. (2018). Book 9: Runoff in Urban Areas, Australian Rainfall and Runoff, . Commonwealth of Australia (Geosciences Australia), Australia.

7 Statutory Authorities Review Committee. (2021). Inquiry Into The Stormwater Management Authority. Hansard South Australia

8 Chris Sheedy. (2023, March 16). Building Resilience in the face of increasing cyber risk. Retrieved from https://www.awa.asn.au/ resources/latest-news

Jackie Hammond and Michael Smit, Rainwater Harvesting Australia

IRRIGATION WATER SOURCES

Recycling effluent for irrigation –a Queensland council’s progressive approach

The Fraser Coast Regional Council in Queensland aims to recycle at least 90 per cent of the municipality’s treated effluent for irrigation. The council’s recent plans to expand its re-use scheme are expected to save money, minimise the nutrients entering the ocean and provide new opportunities to irrigators. However, delivering a reliable source of water to irrigators while minimising outfall to the ocean requires considerable planning.

Fraser Coast Regional Council’s recycled water scheme has been in place for more than 25 years. It is serviced by six main catchment areas, with sewage treatment plants at Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Burrum Heads, Toogoom, Howard and Torbanlea.

The scheme uses around 5,000 ML annually and routinely uses 90 to 100 per cent of the Fraser Coast’s treated wastewater for irrigating tree plantations, golf courses, turf farms, sporting fields and agricultural crops. Between 2013 and 2020, water recycling prevented around 600 t. of nitrogen and 200 t. of phosphorus entering the UNESCOlisted Great Sandy Strait.

A GROWING POPULATION

The region’s population is growing rapidly, and in 2020 the council began developing its Recycled Water Strategy to

determine how it could best manage increasing volumes of effluent in a sustainable and cost-effective way in the coming decades.

The Strategy showed that improving the region’s recycled water infrastructure would be more economical than upgrading its sewage treatment plants – a measure that would be necessary to improve the quality of the effluent to a standard to be discharged to the environment. By instead improving the recycled water infrastructure and using the water for irrigation, the council could save almost $12 million in capital expenditure over the next ten years. The community and recycled water customers also highly value the recycled water scheme.

Following the development of the Strategy, the council recently announced its plans to expand the existing recycled water networks, increase storage in key locations and establish new irrigation areas in the region.

Huge amounts of work and planning go on behind the scenes to achieve these impressive recycling rates, to keep the scheme running and to plan for future uncertainties. Irrigation Australia Journal spoke to Ben McClatchie, Fraser Coast Regional Council’s water reuse manager, about the challenges of planning and managing recycled water use at a regional level.

COST AND BENEFITS OF RECYCLED WATER

Ben emphasises that from the outset when planning a recycled water scheme, it is important to understand the true costs and benefits.

One of the sewage treatment plants at Hervey Bay that supplies the recycled water scheme.

“Just understanding the true cost and value is a journey that the whole recycled water community is on. To make decisions, we need to recognise the total economic value of recycled water,” Ben said.

To this end, the council applied the Australian Recycled Water Centre of Excellence model, which helped them understand the true costs and benefits.

“Along with a comprehensive understanding of the costs of a scheme, we needed to consider things like the value to our customers, avoided potable water costs and avoided treatment cost – especially given the ‘no net decline in water quality’ requirement under state legislation for receiving waters on the Great Barrier Reef. We also need to consider community willingness to pay,” Ben said.

The total economic value approach clearly showed that expanding the recycled water scheme would benefit the Fraser Coast community. An important driver of this was the avoided cost of sewage treatment plant upgrades.

DEMAND, SUPPLY, ALLOCATION AND PRICING

While recycling water for irrigation instead of discharging it to the ocean might seem like a no-brainer, Ben notes that the process is not as simple as it might seem. “During wet times there is plenty of recycled water but very little irrigation demand. During dry times, all recycled water customers are likely to want extra water for irrigation, but sometimes there is not enough to go around.”

“Irrigation and water balance models can help us to predict different outcomes like running out of water, uncontrolled overflow and exceeding licence conditions, but extreme events can be difficult to manage.”

Another consideration is the cost of running recycling schemes. It is important to determine how those costs should be most equitably recovered. The council aligns its pricing approach with National Water Initiative principles. In developing the strategy, the council consulted extensively with irrigators and other stakeholders about pricing and tariffs as well as how to develop security for when levels are low and incentives for use when levels are high.

“Actually applying a fair roster and making decisions on when allocations are enacted can have a big impact on end users,” Ben said. “There can be a tendency to overuse when we are approaching drought, so communication is important at this time. We work with irrigators to work out rosters and get an even usage profile.”

DIVERSE USERS IMPORTANT

As well as getting the pricing and allocations right, a crucial aspect of the scheme is the involvement of a range of water users.

“Recycled water schemes are bigger than any individual because they rely on the efforts of a lot of stakeholdersrelationships move water,” Ben said.

The scheme provides water to first-, second- and third-party users. The first party is the council that uses the water to irrigate around 500 ha of sportsgrounds, recreation areas and council-operated forestry plantations. Second parties are share farmers and lease holders that work with the council and agree to use a certain amount of water. Third parties are other irrigators, largely sugar cane growers, who rely on recycled water to irrigate around 1,200 ha of crops.

“We prioritise third-party users to support the economy,” Ben says. “This is a really important part of the scheme; it has the best outcome for the community and is costeffective for the council.”

However, first-party use, particularly irrigation of hardwood plantations operated by the council, is also critical as it enables flexibility and an even demand profile, which ensures that the scheme is resilient. “We need options both to use excess water when grower usage is down, and to enable growers to access water when demand is high – for us, this is January through to Anzac Day,” Ben explains.

“Forestry plays a role in water balance; it is drought tolerant – we can switch it off and prioritise our end users in times of drought.”

The council has been expanding its plantation areas. Last year it added 30,000 more trees in a new 28-ha plantation as part of the Cleaner Wastewater initiative, supported by the Queensland Government under the Queensland Reef Water Quality Program. The new plantation will increase the council’s use of recycled water, ensuring that the reuse scheme keeps pace with the increase in effluent as the population grows. The plantation in turn benefits from irrigation, which increases the growth rates of trees.

The council sees carbon farming as a potential new income stream to help offset its operating costs. Carbon sequestration by forestry is estimated at 180,000 t. to date, with 10,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to be monetised from recent plantings.

Irrigation of hardwood plantations operated by the council is critical to the scheme as it enables flexibility and an even demand profile.

IRRIGATION WATER SOURCES

ENVIRONMENTAL AND PUBLIC SAFETY

Environmental and public safety is another issue that councils need to consider with the use of recycled effluent.

Ben highlights that the requirements for ensuring safe recycled water exist on a continuum. At the source, the focus is on preventing hazards like trade waste contaminants from entering the effluent; education plays a key role here. Subsequently, the eight plants in the region must follow appropriate treatment processes to ensure that the recycled water conforms to state and national standards. At the user end of the continuum, the council works with irrigators to minimise exposure during usage.

Ben notes, “If we are getting the time, place, quantity and quality of application right, we are a long way towards meeting our recycled water objectives. Recycled effluent is safe to use if we work together to ensure basic controls are in place and functioning correctly.”

The council also conducts environmental sustainability reviews every five years to assess potential impacts to groundwater, surface water and soils.

INHERENT UNCERTAINTY REMAINS

The use of recycled effluent for irrigation by local councils can provide a sustainable solution to urban growth, with the potential to support emerging agricultural industries. However, no matter how comprehensive the modelling and the planning process, councils will always face some inherent uncertainties, Ben says.

The dynamic nature of agriculture, coupled with climate variability, can impact the equitable sharing of recycled water, creating challenges in maintaining a reliable and secure supply for recycled water customers.

It is important to continually assess and mitigate the risks associated with changing industry trends to ensure that recycled water schemes continue to benefit both the community and the environment. Ultimately, ongoing investment in recycled water infrastructure, as well as proactive management practices, will be crucial to ensuring the continued success of this innovative approach to water management.

Information. To find out more about the Fraser Coast Regional Council’s Recycled Water Strategy, visit the council website

C O U R S E S F O R 2 0 2 3 A R E N O W L I V E

W h e t h e r y o u ' r e j u s t e n t e r i n g t h e i n d u s t r y , o r b u i l d i n g o n y o u r c u r r e n t s k i l l s a s a n i r r i g a t i o n p r o f e s s i o n a l , w e c a n c r e a t e n e w p o s s i b i l i t i e s a n d h e l p s h a p e y o u r f u t u r e i n t h i s e v e r - g r o w i n g i n d u s t r y .

1 2 + c a r e e r p a t h w a y s t r a i n i n g n a t i o n w i d e

C e r t i f i c a t i o n i s a s e r i e s o f i n d u s t r y - d r i v e n p r o g r a m s d i r e c t l y l i n k e d t o a c c r e d i t e d V o c a t i o n a l E d u c a t i o n p r o g r a m s t o g i v e a s s u r a n c e t o o u r c u s t o m e r s t h a t i r r i g a t i o n p r o f e s s i o n a l s k n o w w h a t t h e y a r e d o i n g a n d h a v e c o m m i t t e d t o c o n t i n u i n g p r o f e s s i o n a l d e v e l o p m e n t .

C e r t i f i c a t e I V i n I r r i g a t i o n M a n a g e m e n t

B E C O M E C E R T I F I E D W I T H U S

IRRIGATION AUSTRALIA NEWS

SNAPSHOT

• Irrigation Australia welcomes two new faces to the team.

• Up Close: we chat with Davey CEO Valentina Tripp.

• Tracy Martin provides an update on what’s going on in the regions.

IRRIGATION AUSTRALIA WELCOMES TWO NEW FACES

Irrigation Australia welcomes two new staff to the team in the Brisbane office. Allow us to introduce Maddison Coward and Ashleigh Lang.

Maddie is the new training and certification administration support officer. She has a strong background in team management and customer service. Maddie looks after training enquiries and other aspects of courses, including administration, scheduling, promotion and enrolments. She also coordinates our social media campaigns and training course marketing, which allows her creativity to shine through.

“I’ve really been enjoying taking ownership of the marketing and social media aspect of this position and putting my personal touch on the material that I put out. I enjoy being creative and keeping busy in fast-paced environments, so this job fits me well,” Maddie says.

Something Maddie likes about the irrigation industry is that it will always be relevant, “There are always enquiries about training courses and people wanting to learn more about irrigation. More people are also wanting to become certified to stand out professionally in the industry.”

When not at work, Maddie is kept busy keeping her 18-month-old son out of mischief and walking her dog.

Ash has taken on the role of junior administration officer. If you call us with an enquiry, it could be Ash’s friendly voice that you hear on the end of the line.

As well as supporting members’ general enquiries, she’s responsible for a range of tasks including managing the certification program, updating web content, supporting the admin team in preparing training courses and distributing online store orders.

Ash has experience in retail and customer service and is enjoying the new experience of an office environment. “The members have been very welcoming to me, and I look forward to growing my knowledge in the years to come,” she says.

Outside of work, Ashleigh enjoys spending time with her family and keeping up with her energetic five-year-old son.

Welcome, Ash and Maddie!

UP CLOSE

You might already be familiar with Valentina Tripp, CEO of Davey Water Products. In 2022, Valentina was elected to Irrigation Australia Board of Directors, and she was subsequently appointed deputy chair. She also contributes her expertise to Irrigation Australia's Audit and Risk Management Committee.

Valentina’s passions lie in ethical, sustainable global supply chains, water management reform, and a future powered by renewable energy. Irrigation Australia got up close and personal with Valentina to find out about her work, her life, and her visions for Irrigation Australia and the broader industry.

IA. Can you describe a day in your life at Davey?

Valentina. We are in a pivotal phase of transformation, so it is a full day that starts very early with a quick catch up on latest news globally, industry updates, sales and what is happening globally. Then I get straight into connecting with my teams and customers.

I endeavour to spend as much as half my time in the market with our dealer partners and distributors across Australia and New Zealand as well as around the world. We currently serve more than 2,600 customers across 47 countries, with over 3,000 products across water transfer, treatment, and pool categories.

Irrigation Australia welcomes two new faces to the team: Maddie Coward (left) and Ash Lang (right)

IA. What are your priorities for the IAL board over the coming year?

Valentina. I see three main priorities: First, continuing to build on our core strengths in training and certification; second, to support and enhance skills pathways and development, and third, to strengthen and grow our irrigation industry for a sustainable and water secure future for our communities.

IA. What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the industry?

Valentina. Globally, 70 per cent of freshwater is used in agriculture, and demand for freshwater will increase 30 per cent by 2050 as population and urbanisation growth accelerates. Finding solutions to tackle climate change, water accessibility and food security are top of mind for society, government and communities.

In a prior role, I led a food manufacturing business with permanent crop farming operations along the Murray River in the Sunraysia region, I lived through the last drought and water crisis in the region and know first-hand how devastating this was for our organisation and the farming families that supplied our processing centre.

I believe that we have a great opportunity and responsibility, especially now when water is abundant in many parts of the country, to plan forward and find innovative ways to solve for what will be inevitable, the next drought and other extreme weather events.

Solutions for sustainable agriculture across our nation are critical and require investment and innovation from industry supported by government and the capital markets, to build resilience and solutions to tackle our climate challenges.

We need to step up, we need to attract and train the best talent, the best and brightest, to what is a fantastic industry that will to grow in importance, prominence and criticality for our communities, our nation, and the rest of the world.

IA. What was the last book you read and where are you planning your next holiday?

Valentina. Two recent books have been Unreasonable Hospitality – The remarkable power of giving people more than they expect by Will Guidara and The digital mindset –what it really takes to thrive in the age of data, algorithms, and AI by Paul Leonardi & Tsedal Neeley.

My last family trip just before the pandemic was exploring Japan during the cherry blossom season. The next family trip is being planned for Vietnam. We are looking forward to exploring the local culture and amazing food.

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

What’s going on in the regions and with membership by Tracy Martin, Irrigation Australia's National Membership and Regions Manager.

Victoria

The Melbourne regional committee recently appointed Andrew Rathjen, former vice chair, as the new chair following Guy Nichols’ resignation. Andrew has been an active member of the committee for the past three years, bringing valuable experience to lead the region.

In an effort to broaden its representation, the committee has decided to include the rural irrigation sector. To reflect this, we have adopted the new title of the Victoria Regional Committee (IALVIC).

In light of this expansion, we’ve extended an invitation to members working in the rural irrigation sector to join our ranks.

So, what does the regional committee do? In a nutshell, members act as representatives from the industry. They provide invaluable local industry intelligence and serve as a communication link between the Irrigation Australia board, the management team and other industry stakeholders. Regional committees play a crucial role in facilitating the activities of Irrigation Australia, acting as a conduit for the following:

• Establishing and upholding regional recognition of Irrigation Australia as the peak industry body. Their aim is to help develop and maintain a professional, sustainable, ethical, and accountable irrigation industry in regional Australia.

• Providing feedback and guidance to Irrigation Australia management and board on irrigation issues specific to regional Australia.

• Promoting the activities of Irrigation Australia in regional Australia, including membership, training, certification, and events.

• Hosting regular committee meetings, which can be conducted either face-to-face or through teleconferencing.

• Identifying, recommending, and hosting regional events, such as breakfasts, site tours, field days and expos, that are approved by Irrigation Australia and organised in conjunction with the national membership and regions manager.

IRRIGATION AUSTRALIA NEWS

On the topic of member events, the committee is busy preparing a calendar of events for the coming months. One highlight will be the annual field day, scheduled for 11 July, which will focus on water efficiency practices. Further details about this popular event will be shared directly with our members closer to the date, including information about registration.

Finally, we would like to extend our gratitude to Guy Nichols for his valuable support during his eight-month tenure as chair. We wish him all the best in his future career endeavours.

South Australia

The region recently organised a presentation on the Irrigation Certification Framework, with a specific focus on its adoption in future tenders for irrigation works. The presentation aimed to provide clarity on several key aspects, including:

• how to validate a certified professional: the process of verifying the qualifications and expertise of professionals seeking certification

• framework compliance: Understanding the requirements and standards set out by the Irrigation Certification Framework

• framework governance: Insight into the governance structure of the framework, including the complaint process

• demand for qualified professionals: recognising the growing need for skilled and certified individuals in the industry.

Following the presentation, a virtual meeting was held with Geoff Harvey, the national training manager. The discussion revolved around the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) process for industry colleagues who possess significant experience. It was mutually agreed to conduct a pilot assessment, involving an experienced employee from the City of Charles Sturt. The purpose of this pilot is to explore the potential for streamlining RPL and evidence capture process using existing tools used by Irrigation Training Australia, such as, like ReadySkills.

Western Australia

If you’re in WA, get ready for an exciting showcase of the WA irrigation industry at the highly anticipated 2023 Waterwise Irrigation Expo! This biennial event attracts attendees from across the state who are eager to explore the latest innovations in water efficiency practices and technologies.

The event is not just limited to the irrigation industry; delegates from various sectors such as local government, golf courses, landscaping, school groundskeeping and turf industries also join in.

The Expo offers a fantastic platform for businesses to demonstrate their water-efficient products and practices. In addition to the exhibition, delegates can participate in practical ‘field’ rotational tours. So, mark your calendars for 16 August. The event will be held at Optus Stadium, one of the world’s most beautiful sports facilities, overlooking the picturesque Swan River and Perth city.

The organising committee is now focusing on creating a varied and interesting delegate program. Exhibition space has been selling fast, so be sure to download the Exhibitor Prospectus and secure your spot at this prestigious event here

In other news, the Waterwise Council Training Program will be wrapping up soon. This program, which has been fully subsidised by Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and Water Corporation, is part of the Waterwise Council program and provides Gold Councils with an opportunity to expand the skills of the parks and gardens teams. The remaining courses are scheduled for May and August.

Gold Waterwise Councils that haven’t yet taken advantage of this offer will be in invited directly by Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to participate. IALWA will support the initiative by managing the administration, registration and delivery of the training in irrigation efficiency, and provides three units of competency from the national training framework.

Queensland

The Queensland regional committee had a productive meeting in May to discuss the line-up of activities for the remainder of the year. We’re considering various interesting sites that will offer our members fantastic opportunities to connect and network with others, as well as learn about the specific site.

It’s not always easy to secure permissions for access to these sites, but the committee is dedicated to navigating through the necessary permission processes. We hope to

provide some interesting member events in various locations over the remainder of the year.

On another note, we strongly encourage members to interact with their regional committee. Allow us to introduce you to the committee, both familiar faces and a few new ones:

• Ben Chapman (Chair)

• Clinton Hort (Secretary)

• Mark Gordon

• Russ Dunne

• Peter Chadband

WATERWISE IRRIGATION PROGRAMS ON FACEBOOK

Have you checked out Irrigation Australia’s Waterwise irrigation programs on Facebook?

There are two categories:

• Waterwise Garden Irrigator - for professional installation and maintenance services

• Waterwise Irrigation Design Shop - for expert advice and quality parts

The Facebook page aims to provide the wider community with #waterwise tips and advice and promote members.

Use the QR code and jump on Facebook to find out more and keep up to date.

Find an Irrigation Specialist

If you are looking for an irrigation specialist, then the Irrigation Australia website is your one-stop shop.

Then you can search for a professional in your area by state, category, postcode, name or company name.

IAL BOARD DIRECTORS

Simon Treptow (Chair)

Irrigear Stores, Mornington Victoria 3931

Valentina Tripp (Deputy Chair)

Davey Water Products, Scoresby Vic 3179

Colin Bendall

SunWater, Brisbane 4001

Peter Brueck

Waterwise Consulting, Bangor NSW 2234

Greig Graham

Rivulis, Brendale Queensland 4500

Rob Nadebaum

Rain Bird, Deer Park Victoria 3023

Matthew Binder

MJ Binder Consulting, Adelaide, SA

Andrew Ogden

Western Irrigation, Bibra Lake WA 6163

Momir Vranes

Ashgrove Queensland 4060

Carl Walters

Goulburn-Broken Catchment Management Authority, Shepparton Victoria 3632

Just click on ‘Member directory’

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

IRRIGATION AUSTRALIA TRAINING

A training update by Geoff Harvey, Irrigation Australia's National Training, Certification and Marketing Manager.

CERTIFICATE III EMBRACED WITH ENTHUSIASM

In May, we had the pleasure of delivering training to a new cohort of students commencing their Certificate III in Irrigation Technology AHC32422 at Tocal Agricultural College in the picturesque Hunter Valley in New South Wales. Half of the students in this group were women, which is a first for this qualification! It was great to see the enthusiasm of all the students and to witness more females entering the irrigation and pumping industry. Being a vital industry that is quickly expanding, jobs in this field will always be in demand.

A good place to start if you’re new to the industry is the Certificate III in Irrigation Technology. This certification is a great gateway into the irrigation industry. The course covers everything you need to learn to operate and maintain irrigation systems in a range of environments. It is delivered over four blocks of training, with the first, third and fourth blocks being face to face and the second block being virtual. For more information about this and our many other courses, contact our training and certification team on training@irrigation.org.au or (07) 3517 4000.

TRAINING DIARY

full days)

IRRIGATION TRAINING INFORMATION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Check out Irrigation Australia’s training course booklet. This comprehensive publication provides essential details on training courses offered by Irrigation Australia.

• Certificate III in Irrigation Technology

• Certificate IV in Irrigation Management

• Centre Pivot and Lateral Move

• Meter Installation and Validation

• Introduction to Irrigation | Agriculture

• Introduction to Irrigation | Urban

• Irrigation Pumps and Systems

• Irrigation Efficiency

• Urban Irrigation Design

• Commercial Irrigation Design

• IRRICAD Design

• Irrigation Installer

• Storage Meter Installation and Validation

UNLOCKING EFFICIENCY: PETER BRUECK’S PROFESSIONAL JOURNEY AND THE VALUE OF ONOING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Professional development is an ongoing process. It is equally important for people who’ve worked in our evolving industry for decades as it is for newcomers. Peter Brueck, Director of Water Wise Consultancy, recently completed Irrigation Australia’s new Irrigation Systems Auditor course. We spoke to Peter about why this certification is important in his work.

IA. Can you briefly tell us about your professional background.

Peter. I’ve worked in the irrigation industry for more than 40 years. Up until 13 years ago I was a contractor and operated my own contracting business in Sydney, working mainly in the commercial and heavy turf industry. Then I started a consultancy firm; I do irrigation design, project management and auditing.

Right now, auditing is a big part of what I do. Most water authorities are saying that organisations need to prove systems are efficient. I’m currently conducting irrigation audits for 150 parks for City of Sydney. I’m auditing the systems of little local parks through to big sports fields to assess the state of their systems to plan future works, as well as determining current performance. This is important work for the City of Sydney to meet its targets to reduce potable water use by 2030.

In general, the auditing component of my work ebbs and flows – it becomes bigger in drought and when restrictions are in place.

IA. What motivated you to complete the Irrigation Systems Auditor course?

Peter. Auditing is important for councils and clients to achieve higher efficiencies in systems and operations and to determine the life expectancy of equipment. New competencies were recently introduced to this certification. To stay up to date, I completed the new course that covers these new competencies. Every certified auditor should re-do the course.

IA. Which Irrigation Australia courses or other qualifications had you completed previously?

Peter. I’m a Certified Irrigation Designer in landscape turf and for golf. I’m also a qualified plumber and have done qualifications in project management and electrical work.

IA. What were your key learnings from the course, and how does this knowledge build on the skills you already have?

Peter. It covered a lot of areas that I don’t work in, like auditing centre pivots in agriculture. Even though this is not part of my work, it’s interesting to learn because there are crossovers between different areas, so you can still get takeaway messages.

The networking side – talking to other contractors – was also a highlight.

IA. Do you have any advice to someone who is considering completing a course?

Peter. The main thing I would say is, certification is something we should have! Don’t wait until the next drought to get the qualifications.

ARTICLE

TECHNOLOGY ASSISTS WITH WATER NETWORK MAINTENANCE: GOULBURN–MURRAY WATER’S APPROACH

SNAPSHOT

• Each year, Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) have a short window during winter for maintenance works of its irrigation networks.

• To make the most of this short time period, GMW has been using LIDAR technology to detect silt build up, developing more efficient ways of identifying and controlling weed infestations and using data to improve asset management.

Each year, Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) has a three-month spell between irrigation seasons during which it can conduct extensive maintenance works on its delivery network. The 2023 maintenance period began in May and runs until mid-August. During this time, channels can be drawn down to allow desilting, weeding and asset repairs to be carried out.

This work is important as it affects how efficiently and reliably water can be delivered to customers for the following season. For this reason, GMW is always looking for innovative ways to maximise productivity during this time.

Technology to detect silt build-ups

GMW has been using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology via a plane flying over approximately 180 km of its channel network to detect areas where silt has built up. LiDAR data is developed into a digital elevation model, which can then be compared to the original design profiles of the channels. This enables GMW to streamline the identification of areas where silt has accumulated in channels and accurately estimate the volumes of silt involved. As a result, GMW can prioritise which sections of the channel network require desilting before the dewatering process at the end of the irrigation season.

Goulburn-Murray Water has a short three-month window for winter maintenance.

The network includes more than 5,000 flume gates, which allow channel networks to be controlled remotely and helping GMW see where weeds are impeding flow rate.

Given the short timeframe available to GMW to conduct maintenance works between irrigation seasons, creating efficiencies like this is crucial.

Improving weed management

Like silt, weeds can affect GMW’s ability to deliver reliable flows to irrigators.

In recent years, GMW has significantly increased automation across its delivery network. The organisation now has more than 5,000 flume gates in its network, which allow channel levels to be controlled remotely.

The modernised system also allows for increasingly detailed data about the reliability and performance of the assets within the network, enabling GMW to see where aquatic weeds are impeding flow rates.

GMW has also developed more sophisticated methods of treating weeds. In recent years, the organisation has done extensive trials to improve its herbicide use and minimise damage to the broader environment.

One area of improvement has been to implement more efficient ways of dispersing herbicides to treat channels. This has included using:

• drones to spray weeds in areas that are difficult to reach on foot

• flowing injections – where the herbicide is injected into the channel at one area and is carried downstream by a controlled water flow.

During the 2022 winter maintenance period GMW treated more than 200 km of channel for weeds and saw significant improvements to flow rates in these areas. GMW

is undergoing a similarly extensive weed treatment program this year.

Repairing and replacing assets

In addition to maintaining channels, the winter period provides GMW with an opportunity to repair and replace damaged or weathered assets.

Once more, an innovative use of data has helped GMW achieve this with greater efficiency than before; detailed records are offering better insights into the lifespan of certain assets.

When an asset reaches the end of its lifespan, it is referred to as an ‘asset failure’. Avoiding asset failure saves costs and minimises disturbance to customers. Over winter, GMW replaces and repairs assets that its data shows are close to failure.

Ready for next irrigation season

These innovations have helped GMW significantly increase the scope of its works program during the winter maintenance period and will hold customers in good stead ahead of the next irrigation season.

Information. For more information on GMW’s winter maintenance program, visit https://www.g-mwater.com.au/ winter-works

Acknowledgment. This article was provided by Goulburn–Murray Water.

MY VIEW

LOW GROUNDWATER RECHARGE, SYNTHETIC FERTILISER AND PESTICIDES CONTRIBUTE TO FISH KILLS

SNAPSHOT

• In this article, fish veterinarian Dr Matt Landos explains why simply reducing extraction rates is not enough to prevent future fish kills.

• Pesticides reduce the numbers of insects and freshwater crayfish, which play an important role in maintaining oxygen levels in sediment and water. At sub-lethal exposures many pesticides also lower the maximum water temperature that native fish can tolerate.

• Both glyphosate-based herbicides and synthetic fertilisers promote the growth of blue-green algae in low-flow water. When algal blooms die, they are broken down by a boom in bacteria, which consume the oxygen from the water.

• The movement of fertiliser and pesticide into rivers escalates through elevated rates of run-off, which are a direct consequence of our land management practices.

• We need to support farmers to transition to locally adapted regenerative farming techniques to recover our rivers and our own health.

My professional career began as a livestock veterinarian before I transitioned to become one of Australia’s few fulltime fish veterinarians 23 years ago. Through hundreds of disease investigations in aquaculture and wild capture fisheries I’ve come to appreciate the increasing role of aquatic contaminants as our aquatic ecosystems have degraded.

Sure, the Water NSW monitoring data shows oxygen dropping on 18 March at Menindee Weir #32, below viable levels for fish. But the bad news is that it is not ‘natural’; it is a consequence of our management of water and the landscape. The good news is we can fix it.

I’ve heard experts saying that we need to do more than just reduce extraction rates. I’d like to explain why more support is needed for farmers to change their land and water use to recover aquatic ecosystems; fish need to be more than just wet, to thrive.

The data also show high temperatures were not to blame (I’ll explain more about this further on), and nor were the densities of fish in the river. As you can see in the graph on the next page, as water levels dropped to their minima a week prior to mortality, the high fish density did not

immediately deoxygenate the water – rather the oxygen levels increased through that time. Others claimed the flood influx of organic matter consumed the oxygen, but again the water quality data aligns poorly with this hypothesis. There is clearly more to the complex story.

Something that was absent from the commentary of the recent kills was the likely roles of pesticides, synthetic fertiliser and changes in vegetation cover on the landscape.

Pesticides, insects and crayfish

Waterways that flow through farmland are regularly contaminated by pulses of pesticides from a range of sources from agricultural spray drift, farm run-off, council weed control and urban uses. Their presence is often transitory. Unfortunately, pesticides can leave a legacy even after they have passed through the system.

Dr Matt Landos has been one of Australia’s few fulltime fish veterinarians for 23 years.

None of the pesticides that were screened for in post-kill sampling were detected; however, glyphosate, paraquat and diuron were not on the list of compounds tested for. Australia continues to permit many chemicals that have been removed in the EU due to their adverse toxic impacts on the environment, such as neonicotinoids and fipronil insecticides. These compounds have severe impacts on insects at parts per trillion exposure levels. The declines in insects across agricultural areas have been largely attributed to pesticides and loss of vegetative habitat (Sanchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys, 2019).

Insects play a vital role in the aquatic environment, helping maintain oxygenated sediments by burrowing through them, and forming part of the food web for fish. Fewer insects mean less healthy sediments in rivers and wetlands. One consequence is that rivers become less able to manage normal influxes of organic matter that accompany rainfall.

Unfortunately, some of our aquatic macrofauna, like crayfish, are also acutely sensitive to these chemicals, contributing to some species now being listed as threatened species. Species like crayfish are critical to consuming organic matter in rivers. Through eating the plant material, the crayfish make it unavailable to bacteria and help reduce its deoxygenation potential. Further, the crayfish assimilate the organic material into high value proteins and fats, which can then benefit the consumers of the crayfish like our predatory native fish like Murray Cod and Golden Perch and freshwater turtles.

Critically, at sub-lethal exposures many pesticides also lower the maximum water temperature that native fish can tolerate by up to a few degrees (Patra et al, 2007). More detailed pesticide surveillance using passive sampler devices is needed to assess this risk.

It is notable that all of these top-order species are in

Water quality data from Water NSW, leading up and after the fish kill on 17 March. Figure © State of New South Wales.

MY VIEW

dramatically lower numbers now, before the most recent fish kills. The turtle numbers just aren’t there to clean up dying fish, before they rot and add to the deoxygenation process.

Glyphosate, fertiliser and blue-green algal blooms

The glyphosate-based herbicides are the most extensively used pesticides in NSW in terms of volume. Their use has grown around 10-fold in the last decade, although catchment level use data is not collected. With improvements in chemical detection, glyphosate-based herbicides are now recognised as common water contaminants.

Glyphosate promotes blue green algae through its phosphate metabolite and its modifying effect on the algal assemblage. Blue green algal blooms are also promoted by nutrient enrichment (eutrophication), the primary source being synthetic fertilisers, with some livestock contributions, particularly where they have direct access to waterways. NSW EPA identified very high nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the water post-kill.

Algal blooms can thicken, particularly in low flow, or static water, such as when river levels dropped in the Menindee Weir pool. The algae’s photosynthetic activity increases the dissolved oxygen content of the water. However, the water can stratify, and the algae become starved of light, leading to a bloom crash. The dead algae is broken down by a boom in bacteria, which consume the oxygen from the water.

The pink and brown lines in the figure show how the oxygen rose, before crashing below the levels that support fish life, and mass deaths ensued. These unnatural cycles of algal booms and busts also drive the river sediments to become increasingly anoxic. Before European settlement the river and wetlands had aquatic vegetation that could only have grown with high water clarity. That clarity has been lost with the continued loss of catchment soil and riverbank destabilisation.

Vegetation, cover crops and water run-off

The movement of fertiliser and pesticide into rivers escalates through elevated rates of run-off, which are a direct consequence of our land management practices. The dramatic loss of ground vegetation in farming landscapes from clearing and repeat broadacre herbicide applications combined with drainage, promote rapid water run-off, rather than slowing water to encourage it to soak into the ground, where it would naturally course back via groundwater to support the riverine flow in dry times.

Improved landscape hydration is a substantially better water storage solution than open dams, which lose vast amounts of water through evaporation. Maintenance of ground covers also cools soil, the roots help retain precious soil, boost carbon and microbial soil life. The vegetatively boosted water penetration and ground storage help filter

water, keep organic matter in paddocks and sustain riverine flows, supporting healthier aquatic ecosystems.

The water management that has resulted in drainage of wetlands has also allowed invasion by non-flood tolerant vegetation, which now rots and contributes to deoxygenation when inundated.

The rapid drop in river levels seen at Menindee can be altered, both through better controls on extraction and improved landscape hydrology.

Farmers need support

We need to support farmers to transition to locally adapted regenerative farming techniques to recover our rivers and our own health. We can start with supporting farmers to get off-river watering for stock and riparian restoration as critical steps in this journey.

Other complimentary measures to increased environmental water have been talked about (e.g. Baumgartner et al 2018) to support healthier aquatic environments. These include pest fish control (e.g. carp and gambusia), sustainable irrigation infrastructure like pump screens and fish-friendly weir designs, addressing salinisation consequences of irrigation, cold water pollution from dams, restoration of habitat through restoring hydrology to wetlands, and replacing snags in river.

Change needed

You don’t just get a ‘lack of oxygen’ that kills millions of fish. First you pollute river with synthetic fertiliser and impact its ecological function with insecticides, then promote toxic blue green algal blooms with glyphosate. It is haphazard water flow controls, diffuse source pollution, and inadequate wetland management that set the scene for the kills.

We can change this, and we must, for it is more than fish dying – a piece of us is dying too.

Dr Matt Landos, Future Fisheries Veterinary Service, NSW.

CONTRACTORS’ CORNER

RELATIONSHIPS KEY FOR SUCCESS FOR RURAL IRRIGATION BUSINESS

important that we are able to provide good quality, durable products to our customers; and having good support around those products is paramount.

IA. What types of irrigation jobs do you typically deal with?

Ashley. Traditionally the area has been predominately family farms, where we have assisted with the initial design and installation of set ups, including pumps, mainlines, filtration and irrigation.

Irrigear Lowood, located in a rural area 66 km west of Brisbane, is known for its knowledgeable staff and great customer service. The store’s success was acknowledged with the Irrigear Member of the Year Award for 2022. Irrigation Australia Journal spoke to Sales Manager Ashley Dodt about the business’s keys to success and what trends he is seeing in the industry.

IA. Can you tell us a bit about the business?

Ashley. We opened the doors in 1994 and currently have 13 staff. We offer irrigation customer service and sales as well as workshop and onsite service and installations.

We became an Irrigear member in 2000; two staff have completed the Cert III in Irrigation Technology through Irrigation Australia; and our team collectively has over 150 years of experience within the industry.

In 2018 we became the region’s Husqvarna Crown Dealership, offering professional knowledge and service on the complete range of mower and outdoor power equipment.

IA. Congratulations on receiving the Irrigear Member of the Year Award for 2022. What features of the business contributed to this?

Ashley. We believe that good relationships are key: with our suppliers, between staff, as well as our customers help us maintain and grow our business. We are fortunate to have a team who share a common goal of being recognised as an industry leader within our region.

Having several longstanding staff allows us to provide exceptional knowledge to our customers, and we can see this is recognised by the number of established customer connections we have formed within our 29 years of business. Through this time, we have also worked to build solid relationships with our supplier representatives, as it is

Now, we continue to provide support for those systems with maintenance, service and upgrades when required. As the area continues to grow, there will be the opportunity to move into the industrial urban scene, but for now we are focused on supporting our rural irrigation customers.

IA. Could you describe a typical client?

Ashley. Fruit, vegetables, grains and lucerne are commonly grown in the area. With the younger generations of farming families becoming more in control of farm operations, we are seeing an increasing interest in technology and how it can improve efficiencies in current processes, reduce manual workloads and increase yields. Things such as automating an existing system, upgrading fertigation methods or installing more efficient pumps can achieve overall better efficiency in both time and money, which is the desired outcome for everyone.

IA. Have you noticed any changes or new trends in the industry?

Ashley. There has been an increase in undercover cropping in the area. At first this was due to the weather becoming less predictable, and farmers trying to reduce crop damage from storms or excessive heat. However, the combination of automation and fertigation within these structures is providing a premium product and optimal crop yields. We are also noticing an increase in solar pumping systems and remote controlling for water storage control.

IA. Getting out your crystal ball, what is your prediction for business conditions for the rest of 2023?

Ashley. I think for our region, the overall outlook is promising for everyone. Since receiving large rainfall last year, most water storages are currently full and some bore levels have also improved, so confidence for growers is currently high. Now with the rain reducing and things starting to dry out, irrigation is on the rise again, and people are keen to upgrade current systems or make repairs while time and funds are available.

Ashley Dodt and his team at Irrigear Lowood.

LESSONS FROM AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST SOLAR-DIESEL HYBRID PUMPING SYSTEM

SNAPSHOT

• Karin Stark and Jon Elder installed Australia’s largest solar diesel hybrid pumping system on their irrigated cotton and wheat farm in 2018.

• The hybrid system prioritises the use of power from the solar array, with any shortfalls in power required to run the bore being delivered from the dieselpowered generator.

• Karin and Jon saw early successes with the hybrid system reducing diesel usage by more than 40 per cent; however, they have also encountered ongoing issues with the system.

• This article describes the successes, challenges, and potential solutions to the system's problems.

• Investments like this by early adopters serve as valuable lessons for the industry.

Australia’s largest solar diesel hybrid pumping system is located 25 minutes from Narromine in the centre of NSW. The property, which is owned and operated by fourth generation farmer Jon Elder and his partner Karin Stark, is used for farming irrigated cotton and wheat. Karin runs the National

Renewables in Agriculture Conference happening 21 June this year.

Prior to the installation of the solar diesel microgrid the farm’s biggest contributor to operating costs was energy. The farm went through around 400,000 L of diesel annually to drive the diesel-powered bore and lift pumps needed to extract large volumes of water from up to 90 m in depth.

In 2018, to reduce these costs, the farm engaged solar pumping solutions company ReAqua to replace one of the three on-farm diesel-powered bores with a solar/diesel hybrid pumping bore – the largest of its kind in Australia.

A hybrid microgrid system

This hybrid microgrid system used the existing infrastructure associated with the bore hole and replaced the diesel-powered CAT C-9 engine with a WEG 250 kW electric motor. ReAqua then installed a 500 KW CAT diesel-powered generator, a 500 kW solar array of approximately 1 ha in area, and associated inverters, variable speed drives and control systems.

The hybrid system prioritises the use of power from the solar array, with any shortfalls in power required to run the bore being delivered from the diesel-powered generator. During the pumping season the bore is typically run around the clock, extracting up to 15 ML each day.

Australia’s largest solar diesel hybrid pumping system comprises a 500 kW solar array covering 1 ha. Photo by ReAqua.

Early successes

The hybrid system attracted significant interest both locally and interstate. Diesel use in Australian agriculture makes up approximately 80 per cent of energy used on farm and about 8 per cent of agriculture emissions. The system was lauded as a step change in irrigated agriculture, reducing costs and emissions and building resilience for farming businesses. A launch event was well-attended by the media, the state’s agriculture minister and the president of the National Farmers Federation.

During the first year of operation, accurate records were kept for diesel usage and bore water extracted. The results were encouraging: compared with the recently replaced diesel system, the hybrid system reduced diesel usage by more than 40 per cent. The diesel savings alone suggested a five- to six-year payback period on the investment. Furthermore, the reduction in diesel usage represented an estimated reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 500 t per year.

Problems along the way

Despite these early signs of success, the project has not all been smooth sailing, with the solar diesel pump encountering two persistent problems. One is the issue of blending solar and diesel power sources, which was initially underestimated. When solar power is suddenly reduced, such as on intermittently cloudy days, the generator fails to ‘ramp up’ fast enough to supply the power shortfall, and power to the electric motor sometimes falls below a level that triggers a shutdown of the bore.

The second problem relates to the ‘sizing’ of the dieselpowered generator. Given the bore is typically run 24 hours a day when operating, and that most of the diesel generator’s work is undertaken at night when it provides 100 per cent of the power to bore’s electric motor, the size was selected to optimise fuel efficiency. As such, during these times the diesel generator operates at between 50 and 60 per cent capacity.

However, on cloudy days and during the morning or evening shoulder periods, a problem arises. At these times the shortfall in solar energy often requires only small inputs of power from the diesel generator, which means it is working at capacities below that specified by the manufacturer. In effect, the generator is not working hard enough, thus causing damage to the engine itself. This process is sometimes referred to as ‘glazing’.

Potential solutions

The solution to the first problem probably entails some form of ‘buffering’ between the two power sources –perhaps in the form of batteries. In this instance, the basic theory would require battery-stored energy to supplement that of declining solar power long enough for the generator to come online. The battery is then recharged, either by the diesel generator itself or the solar panels.

Obviously, the solution to the second problem exists with a re-sizing of the generator. However, the sizing is likely influenced by the solution to the first problem outlined above. To illustrate, it’s conceivable (if not necessarily economically practical), that a battery solution large enough could be employed to provide any shortfall of solar power below a generator’s safe operating range. The recharge of any battery solution could also contribute to the load required of the generator, further ensuring a generator works above a minimum safe working load.

Given the solution to these problems may well be interrelated, the challenge will be to model various options to provide a least-cost solution to ensure a reliable system.

Important lessons from early adopters

By using renewable energy to help run pumps, farmers could substantially reduce both operating costs and emissions. However, those who want to make this transition still face challenges. Investments by early adopters can provide invaluable lessons for the industry.

Information. Hear from Karin Stark and other presenters, including keynote speaker Ross Garnaut, at the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference on 21 June 2023 in Dubbo NSW.

Karin Stark

The farm’s CAT generator and electric motor with pump.

ICID INSIGHTS

AWARD NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR WATSAVE AWARDS

Nominations are invited from individuals/teams for these prestigious international awards.

Recognising the need to encourage innovations in irrigation and drainage, ICID instituted WatSave Annual Awards in 1997. The Awards are presented each year to recognise outstanding contributions to water conservation or water saving in agriculture. The Awards acknowledge actual realised savings and not promising research results, plans and/or good ideas/intentions to save water.

The WatSave Awards are given in four categories: (i) Technology (ii) Innovative Water Management (iii) Young Professionals; and (iv) Farmer(s) to recognize outstanding contribution to water conservation or water-saving for the benefit of all water users. Only one nomination in each category is allowed from a member National Committee. More details including the procedure for submitting nominations can be accessed at http://icid-ciid.org/view_

page/9

Each award carries an honorarium of US$ 2,000 and a citation/plaque.

Check out Australia’s winning 2022 entry Leveraging Canal Automation Technology To Improve Karnataka’s Precious Water Resources and past award winners here

If you are part of a project you believe has potential, please contact dave.cameron@irrigation.org.au before 31 May and we will arrange for consideration by the Australian national committee.

WORLD HERITAGE IRRIGATION STRUCTURES

Nominations are also invited for the selection of World Heritage Irrigation Structures (WHIS), which includes both old operational irrigation structures as well as those with an archival value. A national committee can nominate up to four structures.

Find out more here and read more about the Dethridge outlet/wheel, the 2022 winner from Australia, here

As with Watsave, if you are aware of a structure worth of consideration, please contact dave.cameron@irrigation.org. au before 31 May and we will arrange for consideration by the Australian national committee.

EVENT SCHEDULE

DATE EVENT LOCATION CONTACT/ INFORMATION

1 to 8

November 2023

25th International Congress on Irrigation and Drainage & 75th IEC Meeting

Andhra Pradesh, India

rsdte@nic.in, ceenvtmgmt@nic. in, yellark@gmail. com

26 to 28

February 2024

1 to 7

September 2024

1st Middle East Regional Conference

75th International Executive Council Meeting and 9th Asian Regional Conference

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia a.almajed@ sio.gov.sa, ma.alomair@sio. gov.sa

Sydney, Australia http://www. irrigationaustralia. com.au/

IRRIGATION AUSTRALIA'S COMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE (IACID)

Momir Vranes (Chair)

Dave Cameron

P: +61 7 3517 4001, E: dave.cameron@irrigation.org.au

Naomi Carragher

P: +61 7 3517 4002, E: naomi.carragher@irrigation.org.au

Geoff Harvey

Peter Hayes

Eddie Parr

Carl Walters

Richard McLoughlin

Karlene Maywald

Michael Scobie

Isaac Jeffrey

Claire Miller

Andrew Ogden

STATE ROUNDUP

KYNETON RECYCLED WATER IRRIGATION PROJECT COMPLETE

The final upgrade to the Kyneton Recycled Water Irrigation Project in West Central Victoria is complete with a 14 km pipeline now ready to deliver between 200 and 300 ML of recycled water to local landowners and businesses annually. The project will support dryland irrigation via Class C recycled water and deliver better environmental outcomes for the Campaspe River.

The first property to benefit from the project is Crofton Park, a 60 ha farm that provides animal feed such as clover. The property was selected after a land capability assessment and a commitment from the owner to partner with Coliban Water over the long term. Under the agreement on-farm infrastructure will be installed, including pivot irrigators, pumps, pipes and land preparation, which will provide water security for summer crops.

Other approved agriculture customers located along the pipeline will also be connected for irrigation purposes.

Source. Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water website.

CARNARVON RESEARCH STATION UPGRADE COMES TO FRUITION

New infrastructure at the Carnarvon Research Station in Western Australia has recently been completed. The research station is situated in one of Western Australia’s major horticultural production areas, along the Gascoyne River, north of Perth.

The Western Australian Government invested $1.4 million in to construct a protected cropping net house and a retractable roof cooling house.

The retractable roof production system, which creates a microclimate to evaluate crop management strategies, hosts a range of crop trials to assist local growers to optimise crop potential, including capsicums, tomatoes and zucchinis. New irrigated agriculture opportunities and growing techniques relevant to other regions are also being explored. The potential to diversify production systems through new perennial crops is being investigated using the new net house, including high density mangoes and persimmons on trellis.

Source. Western Australian Government website

WATER IN THE FEDERAL BUDGET

The Australian Government has committed $197.1 million to water infrastructure projects in the 2023-24 Budget through the National Water Grid Fund.

These projects include:

• $109.0 million toward construction of the $218.0 million Northern Midlands Irrigation Scheme in Tasmania. This

irrigation project will provide more than 25 GL of high surety irrigation water for agricultural production across more than 89,000 ha.

• $62.1 million toward construction of the $124.2 million Sassafras-Wesley Vale Irrigation Scheme Augmentation in Tasmania. This project will provide more than 14 GL of water annually into the existing Sassafras-Wesley Vale Irrigation Scheme, located on the northwest coast of Tasmania, expanding the area serviced by the scheme to an estimated 19,000 ha.

• $26.1 million toward construction of the Quality Water for Wannon project in Victoria. This project will deliver new water treatment infrastructure critical to improving water quality in Portland, Heywood and Port Fairy, while diverting plastic waste from landfill and boosting quality of life at the same time.

In addition, the Australian Government is committing $4.7 million to two business cases:

• $3.7 million toward the Coliban Regional Rural Modernisation Detailed Business Case in Victoria. This detailed business case will pave the way for Coliban Water to look at options to modernise the water distribution network and increase water supply for the region.

• $1.0 million toward the First Nations Essential Services Detailed Business Case in Western Australia. This detailed business case will investigate options to improve essential water services across at least 48 First Nations communities in Western Australia. Source. Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water website

MOVING WATER 17 KILOMETRES BETWEEN TWO RIVERS: PRIVATE PIPELINE EXTENSION GIVES RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY TO TASMANIAN IRRIGATORS

SNAPSHOT

• In 2006, a group of Tasmanian farmers funded a pipeline to transfer water from the Poatina Retention Pond Dam to the Macquarie River from which they could withdraw it for irrigation.

• The partnership has recently expanded the scheme to increase the pipeline’s capacity by 20 ML per day.

• The work involved more than 11 km of trenching, pumping and river feed work.

• The upgraded scheme provides a more reliable and controllable supply during summer.

In 2008, a group of Tasmanian farmers located along the Macquarie River funded a pipeline to transfer water from the Poatina Retention Pond Dam to the Macquarie River for irrigation. The group recently extended the infrastructure, in partnership with irrigation solutions provider Water Dynamics.

The farmers, located near Cressy in Tasmania’s Northern Midlands, decided to extend the 14-year-old infrastructure, known as the Macquarie Settlement Pipeline, to ensure a reliable water supply in the face of a changing climate and variable river flow. The extension was completed earlier this year. It operates within the original annual water takeout but allows more water to be accessed in summer when most needed.

Original scheme

The original 2008 ‘Macquarie Settlement Partnership’ involved 14 irrigators who invested in the infrastructure. They developed a pipeline to transfer water from a containment pond below Hydro Tasmania’s Poatina Power Station and discharge it into the Macquarie River, upstream of the irrigators’ properties.

The pipeline, which extends 17 km between the two rivers, was designed to deliver 55 ML a day for irrigation. A duplicate pipeline was also developed, enabling Hydro to deliver an additional 40 ML a day to the Lake River system as part of its water supply obligations.

Rob Bayles, Chair of the Macquarie Settlement Partnership, described the original project as a feat of engineering. The two 575 mm PVC main pipelines and the 375 branch pipelines splitting from them collectively cross a public highway, five local council roads and one waterway.

But just as importantly, the endeavour was a feat of cooperation. David Downie, who produces poppies, potatoes and beef cattle, and is a partner in the scheme, said a unique aspect of the project was the high level of involvement of local irrigators. “Out of the 15 farmers in the catchment, 14 were keen to be part of it. Everyone wanted to further develop their properties,” he said.

Kilometres of new pipeline snake out across the Tasmanian countryside near Cressy.

Alan Brazendale, subcontractor leading hand, standing next to a stainless-steel metering and ground entry assembly.

Given the many property boundaries the pipeline had to cross, negotiation was also key. David explains, “As a private group, we had to negotiate with the landholders of each of the properties we went through. This took considerable work and delicate negotiations.”

David says the original scheme delivered more water and in greater volumes than farmers had access to before, at an affordable price. “One of the best things about the scheme was that it was very economical, working out at less than $300 per megalitre. It’s also a very reliable scheme because we have access to water under an agreement with Hydro Tasmania – we use water after they’ve generated power.”

Upgrades needed

While the original scheme worked well in its day, by the early 2020s, the irrigators saw a need for an upgrade. Rob explained, “Circumstances changed over time. We found that a major expansion was required to address issues such as higher demand owing to new land titles being irrigated, and a transmission loss factor arising from the Macquarie River, which is the main conduit for conveying the irrigation water to farm pumping points.”

“Most of the discharge pumping and increased wateruse points are a long way downstream from the primary discharge point. This meant we were seeing increasing delays between water releases from the primary discharge point and its arrival downstream.”

The solution was engineered by Water Dynamics’ Tasmanian branch, which had the technical equipment for the job, including an all-terrain welding machine, and whose staff were familiar with the local area. Together with contractor Midlands Plumbing, Water Dynamics completed the ambitious project within a four-month window.

The work involved welding and laying 4.7 km of 630 mm diameter poly pipe, 3 km of 450 mm pipe and 1 km of 375 mm PVC pipe, duplicating the existing branch line. This required six pumps and six 450 mm suction lines routed to the pump shed shared with Hydro Tasmania.

The suction works were upgraded to a larger diameter, while the existing pump station discharge pipe work, metering, and valving were retained. The motor control was also upgraded by replacing the previous soft starter arrangement with variable speed drives, allowing for optimised current limiting and energy efficiency.

Jeremy Cox, from Water Dynamics, explained that this approach allows flexible options for the future. “This enables a number of future opportunities for lead pump rotation and the possibility of changing the system to a constant pressure system so the future discharge valves can be remotely operated to suit demand,” he said.

At the Macquarie River end of the pipeline, three new water release points were added at locations downstream of the original point, closer to where the water will be used by irrigators.

Greater capacity and reduced losses

Water has been flowing through the new pipeline since January this year, and David says the partners are happy with the outcome. “We’ve increased the capacity by 35 per cent and our additional discharge points mean that we’ll see reduced losses through leakage and evaporation,” he said.

“It cost us $7.5 million to deliver 75 ML a day,” adds Rob. “This is 50 per cent less than a state-funded system would cost. Operating costs are minimal too – less than $5 per megalitre.

“It just shows what people can achieve when they pull together!”

Acknowledgments. Thanks to Rob Bayles and David Downie from the Macquarie Settlement Partnership and to Jeremy Cox from Water Dynamics for providing information for this article.

Eve White, Irrigation Australia

Foot valves used for upgrading the pump station suction arrangement to a larger diameter.

Water Dynamics’ Ritmo all-terrain plastic welding plant in action. The upgrade involved more than 11 km of trenching, pumping and river feed work.

OPTIMISING YOUR ADVERTISING STRATEGY FOR RECRUITMENT: TIPS FOR SUCCESS

SNAPSHOT

• The current labour shortage means that businesses are finding it hard to find and retain qualified people.

• Running a successful recruitment campaign requires a strategic approach that aligns with your brand identity.

• This article from Agricultural Appointments outlines eight steps to running a successful campaign to attract the right applicants.

Due to the current labour shortage in Australia, employers are having to re-evaluate various aspects of their businesses to effectively attract, recruit, and retain skilled workers, and the irrigation and agricultural industries are not exempt from this trend. Additionally, the industry’s wide geographic span, operational demands, and other competing industries further compound the challenge of finding and keeping qualified people.

Therefore, running a successful advertising campaign for vacant positions requires a strategic approach that aligns with your brand identity. Your campaign should not only promote your job openings but also present your company culture and values to potential candidates. In this article, I will provide some tips on how to best run an advertising campaign for vacant positions while sticking to your brand.

1. Define your target audience. Just like any advertising campaign, it’s essential to identify your target audience. Determine the skills and experience required for the job role and the demographic you want to attract. This will help you create a job listing that resonates with your target audience.

2. Be clear and concise. Your job listing should be clear and concise. Avoid using jargon or complex language that can confuse potential candidates. Highlight the most critical requirements of the job role and the benefits of working for your company.

3. Get to the facts quickly. Candidates often have limited time and attention span when browsing job ads, so it’s important to provide the most important information upfront. This includes details such as job title, location, salary range, and key responsibilities.

4. Make it enjoyable and easy to read. While job ads should be professional, it’s also important to inject some personality and flavour into the writing. This can help to make the ad more engaging and enjoyable to read, which in turn can help to attract more candidates.

5. Don’t replicate someone else’s ad. While it’s helpful to look at other job ads for inspiration, it’s important to create an ad that stands out from the crowd. Use your own unique voice and style to communicate the selling points of the job and the company. This includes promoting your brand: Your advertising campaign should reflect your company’s brand identity.

6. Use social media. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are great tools for promoting job vacancies. Utilise your social media accounts to share your job listing and reach a broader audience.

7. Ensure your message is authentic: Candidates can often sense when a job ad is insincere or misleading, so it’s important to ensure that your message is authentic and relevant to the job and the company. Avoid making false promises or exaggerating the selling points of the job.

8. Evaluate and optimise. Evaluate the success of your advertising campaign regularly and make necessary changes. Monitor the performance of your job listing and see how many applicants you receive. Make necessary changes to your job listing to improve its performance. In conclusion, running an advertising campaign requires a strategic approach that aligns with your company’s brand identity. Define your target audience, promote your brand, be clear and concise, use social media, and evaluate and optimise. By following these tips, you can attract the right candidates for your company and hire the best talent.

Acknowledgment. Thanks to Agricultural Appointments for permission to reprint this article, which was originally published here

Lauren McNally, Senior Agribusiness Consultant, Agricultural Appointments.

ENERGY BILL RELIEF FUND FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

The Federal Budget has announced energy bill relief payments of up to $650 for small businesses to help with soaring power bills.

Your business can get bill relief if you meet the small business electricity usage criteria in your state or territory. You don’t need to do anything. If you are eligible, you will receive bill relief on your electricity bills from 1 July 2023.

Who can get it

To be eligible, your business must be on a separately metered business tariff with your electricity retailer, and your business’s annual electricity consumption must be less than the threshold for your state or territory. The energy consumption threshold is:

• 40MWh in Victoria

• 50MWh in Western Australia

• 100MWh in the ACT, NSW and Queensland

• 150MWh in Tasmania

• 160MWh in the Northern Territory and South Australia

Who can’t get it

• If you run your small business using electricity from your home, you are generally not eligible for the small business bill relief.

• If your annual electricity consumption is above the small customer business threshold, you are not eligible for the small business bill relief.

• For the ACT and Victoria, small businesses in embedded networks will not be eligible for the small business bill relief.

How much you can get

If you are eligible, how much you can get and how you get it depends on the state or territory your small business is in. You will get a $325 of bill relief if your eligible small business is in Victoria.

You will get a $650 of bill relief if your eligible small business is in these states and territories:

• NSW

• Northern Territory

• Queensland

• South Australia

• Tasmania

• Western Australia.

If your small business is in the ACT, your business will benefit from lower electricity charges flowing from the ACT’s Largescale Feed-in Tariff Scheme. If your business has average electricity use it will receive a reduction in electricity charges of $624. Your business will also receive a $325 rebate.

Source. Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water website.

SPRINKLER SYSTEM FOR FLYING FOXES

Irrigation is not just for plants.

A custom-built sprinkler system has recently been installed to help cool Victoria's largest permanent flying fox colony at Yarra Bend Park. Thirty-two sprinkler heads were installed across two sites identified as important refuges for the flying foxes.

The system covers an area of 30 ha and works to rapidly cool the environment by five to six degrees on days of extreme heat when the colony of approximately 30,000 is likely to experience heat-induced illness. This is determined by both behavioural monitoring and when temperatures rise above 38 degrees. The system has already been used successfully in February on days where the mercury reached 41 degrees.

Colonies of the nationally threatened species can be susceptible to mass deaths on very hot days. With extreme weather events occurring more frequently due to climate change, additional measures to protect the bats are essential to their survival.

The Yarra Bend bats feed on pollen and the nectar of eucalypt blossoms, other native hardwood blossoms and fruit trees across greater Melbourne, and they play a vital role in pollinating and dispersing seed for many native forests across the east coast of Australia.

The $180,000 project is an internationally recognised initiative delivered by Parks Victoria rangers and Zoos Victoria irrigation and wildlife experts.

Source. Parks Victoria website

ARTICLE

MURRAY RECONNECTED FLOODPLAINS –ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNITIES WORKING TOGETHER

Murray Irrigation is working on a proactive solution to Basin Plan challenges by proposing Australia’s largest targeted environmental watering project utilising a water supply channel network. The project, known as the ‘Murray Reconnected Floodplains’, was presented at the Irrigation Australia Conference in Adelaide last October. This article provides an overview of how the project works.

The water delivery system extends over 750,000 ha in Southern NSW and includes approximately 2,000 km of interconnected rivers and creeks together with up to 2,000 individual wetlands located on farmland. These environmental assets are extremely ecologically important.

Delivering environmental water

Murray Irrigation’s fully modernised water delivery network enables precise control and measurement of water, so that at-risk ecological assets can be efficiently watered by a seasonally effective regime (Figure 1).

To date, the company has received $1.9 million of government funds to upgrade eight water delivery structures that can now water 280 km of ephemeral creeks. One structure is the Mascotte escape, which can now deliver up to 300 ML/day into the Jimaringle and Cockran creeks (Figure 2).

A further $2.4 million has been secured to complete further creek connection works. Works include fish-friendly access crossings, flood-tolerant fence crossings and escape structure upgrades. The potential investment to implement the program in full is estimated at around $204 million.

Murray Irrigation’s water supply system has a unique ability to oxygenate water as it tumbles over regulators while travelling through the system. This season to date, more than 178,000 ML of environmental water has been delivered to save millions of native fish from dying due to hypoxic floodwater. The fish congregate behind the flows from the water delivery escape structure, breathing in the oxygenated water.

Studies at sites that have received environmental water also revealed another benefit – the system redistributes small native fish from the Murray River back into the smaller creeks.

Reducing pressure on the Barmah-Millewa Reach

In addition to these large-scale environmental outcomes, the system has another unique and significant feature – it

Figure 1. Cross section showing how Murray Irrigation’s water delivery system is positioned in the landscape relative to nearby rivers, creeks and wetlands.

Figure 2. The recently upgraded Mascotte escape delivering oxygenated environmental water at 300 ML/day into the Jimaringle and Cockran creek.

can reduce pressure on the Barmah-Millewa Reach (Figure 3). What this means is that the same structures that deliver environmental water into these creeks can also be used to deliver consumptive water for downstream demands. This has the additional benefit of reducing delivery pressure on the reach whilst achieving environmental goals along its way by watering a creek.

A win-win for community and environment

The company works closely with the NSW and commonwealth environmental water managers, as well as landholders and First Nations groups who have contributed valuable input to help shape the project.

This project is seen by a range of stakeholders as a real ‘win-win’ that hopefully is symbolic of local communities and the environment working together to achieve environmental outcomes with the water that has previously been recovered. Projects like this could be replicated throughout the entire basin to benefit both the environment and irrigators.

RUNNING FOR WATER: MINA GULI'S MARATHON JOURNEY TO RAISE AWARENESS AND CREATE CHANGE

Most who work in the water sector appreciate the true value of water, an awareness that not everyone shares.

Mina Guli is someone who does share this awareness. A passionate advocate for addressing the water crisis, Mina recently completed an impressive 200 marathons around the world within a year. Her travels culminated in New York in March, where she delivered a speech at the UN Water Conference.

Mina grew up in Melbourne during drought, but she says the penny really dropped for her about the urgency of the water crisis while she was running an investment company that focussed on climatefriendly projects. She established the Thirst Foundation in 2012 to raise awareness about the problem and to encourage meaningful action.

The water crisis will not wait

“We need real action now. The water crisis will not wait for the next generation to make these changes,” Mina said. “I realised we needed to focus on big global out-of-the-box campaigns that would capture media attention and help us tell the story of water, its impact and its importance to us, our communities, economies and our supply chains. We need to create awareness and shift corporate and governmental mindsets – to take real steps to help solve the problem.”

In conversations during her travels over the last year, Mina heard many water stories. “I remember one conversation with an Indigenous leader in Australia. He said things would be different if leaders could understand that things are different on the land.”

Mina found that around the world a massive gap exists between the water challenges that are seen by corporate and governmental leaders and the water crisis that is experienced by people deep in their communities and supply chains. As one community member said from high on a melting glacier in Tajikistan, “Mina, please tell these people directly. The time for soft language is over.”

Messages for industry and government

The Thirst Foundation is calling on individuals, governments and industry to take action. “Governments have the capacity to set agendas. Companies represent 90 per cent of global water use either directly or indirectly through their supply chains. And as individuals, we have the power to drive change by reducing waste at home, and by supporting companies that are taking real action,” Mina said.

Mina’s focus for the coming year is on how to implement change in the world’s river basins. “I am committed to working with NGOs, governments and companies on solving some of the critical water challenges in key river basins around the world, basins that so many of us rely on – for everything.”

Tell your story

If you want to support the work of the Thirst Foundation, Mina asks you to follow her campaign and to share your story. “We need to close the gap between leaders in halls of power and board rooms and people on the ground – irrigators, communities, others. A core piece of this is sharing our stories – stories of real people in real places at the frontlines of this crisis. And if you don’t want to do that - please come run! Either in real life or virtually – individually we can make an impact, but when we work together, we can change the world”.

Information. To find out more, visit the Thirst Foundation website

Michael Pisasale, Water Policy & Strategy Manager, Murray Irrigation Limited.

Figure 3. Murray Irrigation’s supply network reduces pressure on the Barmah Millewa Reach while delivering environmental water.

Mina Guli running marathon 22 of 200 past cotton fields in Narrabri.

THE WATER CONSERVANCY

SMART APPROVED WATERMARK PRODUCT OF THE YEAR

ANNOUNCED

The Water Conservancy recently announced the winners of the Smart Approved WaterMark (SAWM) Product of the Year for 2023 at an awards dinner in Perth. The award, which was established in 2008, recognises leading-edge licensed products and services that use water efficiently. The winners receive a certificate and access to the Product of the Year logo to use on their website.

The winners for 2023 are:

• Aquapea (Product of the Year Commercial winner)

• Vegepod (Product of the Year Residential winner)

• Swan Systems (Service of the Year).

Chris Philpot, CEO of The Water Conservancy, said, “I’m excited to bring back the annual Smart Approved WaterMark. Previous winners have seen huge benefit from this award so I know it will be well received within the sector.”

Nine shortlisted products and services were selected by the SAWM Expert Panel across residential products, commercial products and service categories under the following criteria:

• Innovation – is the product an innovative solution to water conservation, and/or is it the first to market in its category?

• Design – is the product easy to use, install and well designed?

• Marketability – what is the price point, affordability, and packaging of the product?

• Sustainability – what is the carbon footprint of the product?

“The winners should be congratulated on their achievement, and the challenge of deciding the winners demonstrates how excellent all the short-listed products were. The quality of the products demonstrates that the SAWM accreditation program is robust and credible with high standards expected.”

Smart Approved WaterMark was set up in 2004, as a directive from the National Water Initiative, designed specifically to recognise water saving products that qualify for water utility offered rebates and exemption under drought restrictions and to help shoppers make the right choices. Today SAWM is managed by The Water Conservancy and continues to certify water efficient products and services.

SAWM has an independent technical Expert Panel providing credibility and expertise and has approved products in over a dozen categories, including pool and spa, garden, car, plumbing, watering, greywater and bathroom.

Jeremy Cape, Chair of the SAWM Expert Panel said, “It was a very tricky decision as so many of the SAWM approved products and services met our criteria for the Product of the Year. However, after much discussion we came to unanimous view amongst the panel members on the winners.

Information. If you would like to have your water-savings product or service certified by Smart Approved WaterMark and to be in the running for the 2024 Awards, you can apply at www.smartwatermark.org

Chris Philpot

Chris Philpot from the Water Conservancy with Kate Stevenson, CEO of Vegepod, winner of Product of the year Residential award.

BOOKSHELF

HOW DO AUSTRALIANS VIEW OUR WATER FUTURE?

What are Australians visions and concerns for the future of water in our country?

This is the question addressed by The Future of Water Report – the Australian Context, produced by The Australian Water Association (AWA), in partnership with Arup. The report is based on data collected from a 2022 survey distributed across Australia.

When you think of an industry report, you might picture a static PDF document with a dry executive summary followed by numbered sections. The Future of Water Report is different; it is an online interactive tool that allows you to delve into various sub-sets of data provided by survey respondents, based on age, location, and other metrics.

What’s more, the survey remains open for anyone to contribute their perspective. The result will be updated periodically, so the results may change over time.

The survey captured over 750 responses, highlighting how individuals and communities across Australia value and interact with water and key priorities for future water management at both a local and national level.

At this stage, 73 per cent of respondents work in the water industry, and the report had a good representation of people living outside capital cities with 39 per cent living in regional, rural or remote areas.

Recycled water was identified as a favoured future water source for drinking and non-drinking purposes, and climate change, drought and natural disasters were considered our greatest common challenge. Most respondents believed that government should be responsible for sustainable water management at a national level.

Information. You can view the report here , and if you’d like to add your perspective, you can complete the survey here

TANGIBLE STEPS TO REDUCE AGRICULTURAL WASTE

Irrigation equipment is a major component of plastic waste in agriculture, and traditionally producers have faced barriers to recycling this waste. Recent initiatives by industry bodies, government, manufacturers and suppliers have been aiming to change this. Now, a new roadmap prepared by RMCG and funded by Agrifutures outlines a clear pathway to help primary producers reduce their waste.

The roadmap not only addresses plastic wate but also organic and workshop waste. It applies the principles of a circular economy and waste hierarchy and it will ultimately assist individual sectors to take action – helping them identify what needs to be done, who needs to be involved and how they do it.

This roadmap is for industry leaders, including Research and Development Corporations, industry representative bodies and government. It aims to help the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector tackle waste issues sustainably, in a way that aligns with national and state approaches and is supported by industry and the community.

It has been developed with and for industry and focuses on identifying solutions within industry that are pragmatic and realistic. To establish these priorities, we need a shared understanding of drivers and barriers among primary industry, waste and government sectors. The roadmap has facilitated this process by connecting people, creating partnerships and establishing a common language and platform.

The roadmap highlights the barriers to implementing improved waste management practices and identifies the support that is required for each industry at a regional level considering specific sector needs, different waste streams and regional variances.

Information. You can download the Agriculture, fisheries and forestry national waste and resource roadmap here

USING IRRIGATION TO PROTECT CROPS FROM FROST

Frost is a concern for growers of various crops, particularly in the southern parts of Australia. It’s a problem that growers across the Tasman are all too familiar with, and in October last year, many were caught off guard by an unseasonal polar blast. Looking for an effective and economical way of protecting their crops, kiwifruit growers turned to irrigation.

Last year’s spring cold snap in New Zealand’s Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions caused devastating crop loss. Kiwifruit growers were among the hardest hit as the vines had just awoken from their winter senescence (development stage) with vulnerable young leaves and flower buds effectively destroyed by the frost.

Traditional methods for frost protection generally include installing large windmills, using heating systems or hiring a helicopter to move the air around. While these methods work, they are not always practical, efficient or economical, and growers were looking for alternatives.

Using water to protect crops from frost

Irrigation can be an effective option for protecting crops from frost. When water freezes it releases heat, so that ice with surface water that is continuing to freeze stays at about 0ºC, a safe temperature for any plant tissue it encases.

“Using finely misted water does two things: it elevates the air temperate because the ambient water you’re taking from storage will be much warmer than the air temperature, plus it serves to move the air around and prevents the frost from settling,” says Ross Muggeridge, commercial pump manager for Davey Water Products.

Kiwifruit vines are generally irrigated with sprinklers, so only relatively minor modifications to the existing infrastructure are required to enable growers to use it for frost protection.

Ross explains, “During irrigation season, the sprinklers are suspended below the canopy, but for frost protection, they must be raised above the canopy. In some cases, growers will need to install infrastructure to position the sprinklers above the canopy.

Looking for an effective and economic way of protecting their crops from frost, kiwi fruit growers turned to irrigation.

“It may also be necessary to install a by-pass line so that if a specific frost protection pump set is installed, the entire irrigation network, rather than zones, can be fed from a single pump thereby giving the entire orchard protection simultaneously.”

Diesel pump system

Ross was part of Davey’s Commercial Solutions team that worked closely with customers to design a diesel pump set system that transfers water from the source through an irrigation system, delivering a fine mist over crops.

The team chose diesel pumps since they have significantly lower operating costs than electric pumps and are low maintenance, requiring only yearly pump service and filter changes. Additionally, they can be installed in remote parts of the property and do not require a transformer or power lines.

Ross explained that the pump set is designed around the characteristics of system being fed: the number of sprinkler heads, the pressure and flow operating range of the sprinkler heads, and most importantly the system resistance, which is determined by the pipework length, pipe diameter, pipe material and overall friction loss.

Two key features of the system are the capacity to supply the entire orchard and not relying on a power supply, which could be impacted by a severe frost.

Each system arrives on a galvanised steel base, complete with a Davey ISOpec CF pump, powered by a Yanmar or John Deere engine (up to 300 kW depending on the application) along with a weatherproof control box that can be manual or fully automated.

The pumps can be fitted with smart controllers, so growers can set them to timers or activate and deactivate them remotely. When temperatures drop to a certain point, usually around 4ºC, the pump automatically kicks in. Alternatively, an alarm will alert the farmer who can set the system rolling.

Multiple uses and peace of mind

Ross emphasises that while an initial capital outlay is required, a diesel pump system can be a smart investment for growers. The versatility of the irrigation pump, potential insurance premium reduction, and peace of mind make it worthwhile.

Acknowledgment. This article is provided by Davey Water Products, New Zealand.

USING IRRIGATION FOR FROST PROTECTION IN AUSTRALIA

• Paradoxically, climate change may lead to increased frost damage to crops in Australia; in some regions, more clear sky spring days coupled with drier soils are increasing the incidence and severity of frosts.

• The main frost-sensitive crops in Australia are grapes, macadamias, avocados, stone fruit and citrus. Of these crops, vineyards are best known for using frost sprinklers.

• Using a fine mist results in better distribution uniformity and coefficient of uniformity than using larger droplets, which ultimately means less water is needed.

• Irrigation is the most reliable of all frost protection methods for grapes, being effective to around –5ºC, or lower for some systems.

• Unlike kiwifruit, in vineyards a whole new system must be installed for frost sprinklers since they are typically watered with drip or micro-sprinklers.

• Many vineyards on the east coast of Tasmania use frost sprinklers. In some wine-growing areas in other parts of the country, fans are increasingly used as they do not require a water licence or the use of extra water.

• In avocados, under-tree sprinklers that do not overly wet the foliage can be used to protect trees from frost. Over-tree sprinklers can also be used, but must operate continuously until all ice has melted, which can use a lot of water.

Sources.

Arming against the frost factsheet. Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research

Growing avocados: frost, WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.

Frost Protection in Viticulture: A Users Guide for South East Irrigators, Wingara Wine Group Pty Ltd.

One of Davey’s diesel pump frost protection sets ready to be installed on a Waikato kiwifruit farm.

AROUND INDUSTRY

NEW GENERAL MANAGER FOR RAIN BIRD AUSTRALIA

Socrates Cromdos has been appointed as general manager of Rain Bird Australia and New Zealand. Socrates has been with Rain Bird for more than seven years in various roles, most recently as sales manager for the specifications team.

Socrates says, “I'm looking forward to the challenges ahead and continuing to work with the wonderful group of people at Rain Bird in my new role. I’m also excited about the continued growth of the business, the new products that are constantly coming out, new markets that we’ll pursue, and the energy that comes from that.”

Socrates says he sees two key industry-wide challenges that we’re facing currently. “First, we need to keep moving towards irrigation installation being a recognised trade and the certification that comes around that. Second, with an aging workforce, it’s important that retail networks have a succession plan in place.”

In terms of the coming year for Rain Bird, Socrates says, “It’s an exciting time for Rain Bird. We’re continuing to engage with the industry and most importantly we’re listening to what’s required next and acting on it.”

WATER CORPORATION RECEIVES NATIONAL AWARD

Congratulations to WA’s Water Corporation, which in April was recognised as one of the top and most inclusive employers in Australia at the AFR BOSS Best Places to Work 2023 awards.

The WA Government-owned utility won the Agriculture, Mining and Utilities category for its commitment to attracting, retaining, and supporting its diverse and inclusive workforce.

The Awards, open to Australian and New Zealand companies, apply a rigorous methodology to assess the key factors critical to employees feeling motivated and engaged at work.

Water Corporation has more than 3,800 employees and offers has a suite of initiatives and programs around:

• mental health

• return-to-work support

• Aboriginal employment

• Disability Confident Recruitment

• LGBTQI+ awareness training

• youth and graduate employment

• supporting women in leadership

• ensuring diversity and inclusion in recruitment.

Water Corporation CEO Pat Donovan says the award reflects the organisation’s ongoing focus on valuing and supporting employees for their unique insights, ideas and talents.

“We’re passionate about delivering sustainable water services to more than two million customers across WA and our strength comes from our different experiences, backgrounds and perspectives. To achieve this, we need programs and initiatives that develop an inclusive, safe workplace culture and supportive career development opportunities.

“To be recognised nationally among many blue-chip firms speaks volumes for our commitment to making Water Corporation a great place to work.”

L to R: Water Corporation’s General Manager People and Safety Sarah Bagshawe, CEO Pat Donovan, and Head of Safety and Wellbeing Tony Dennis with the Best Places to Work 2023 award.

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

5. Conference & Tradeshow Discounts

Member discounts on attending and exhibiting at the Irrigation Australia Biennial International Conference & Exhibition.

6. Members Only Portal

11. International Representation

Be par t of the global irrigation community and gain access to international contacts via the Irrigation membership of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).

1. Irrigation Journal Copies

Distributed quarterly in digital format, Irrigation Australia’s signature publication, the Journal, contains valuable industry information about new projects, technologies and techniques for Agriculture, Landscape & Domestic Irrigation.

Gain access to the members only portal on the Irrigation Australia website. Through the portal you can manage your Irrigation Australia membership, register your staff/employees for training, access members only documents, presentation and other materials.

7. Access to eKnowledge

Irrigation Australia eKnowledge repository has significant resources of technical papers, conference papers, Irrigation Journals and FAQ’s available only for Members.

8. Discounts on Publications and Merchandise

12. Discounts on Waterwise endorsement Receive significant member discounts on the Waterwise endorsement programs, relevant for domestic irrigation contractors, installers, landscapers and retailers. Benef it from Waterwise marketing and merchandise to promote yourself as a Waterwise irrigation professional to the community.

See www.waterwiseprograms.com.au for more information.

Additional Membership Benefits

2. Access to the National Irrigation Directory

The only national and comprehensive digital directory where you can find details about irrigation retail businesses, manufacturers, installers, contractors, certified professionals.

3. Training Discounts

Receive significant member discounts on nationally accredited irrigation training and qualifications delivered by Irrigation Australia in city and regional areas and on line virtually.

4. Certification Discounts

Receive significant member discounts on the joining fee and renewal fee to the Certification Program administered by Irrigation Australia.

Certification is a national program of industry recognition. Certification adds instant credibility with customers, increases job opportunities and demonstrates your commitment to efficient water management. Visit our website to learn more www.irrigationaustralia.com.au

Irrigation Australia offers a wide range of books, eBooks and other merchandise through its online store. Members receive significant discounts on materials.

9. Invitations to Regional Meetings & Events

Irrigation Australia hosts a number of regional meetings, events and site visits across Australia. This is a great opportunity for members and industry colleagues to come together to discuss new challenges, technologies and network.

(EXCLUDES PRIMARY PRODUCERS, INDIVIDUALS & RETIRED MEMBERSHIP CATEGORY)

13. Free Listing in the online National Irrigation Directory

List your business for free with digital copies reaching the wider irrigation industry which attracts significant page views every month

14. Free Online Job Listing

List your upcoming job vacancies on Irrigation Australia’s online job board which attracts significant targeted views every month.

15. Free Listing on Irrigation Australia’s Website

List your business on Irrigation Australia’s Website Directory “Find an Irrigation Specialist” on the front page of our website www.irrigationaustralia.com.au

10. Monthly Electronic E-News

Receive our monthly Irrigation E-News with the latest information on upcoming training, events as well as new products, information and industry news.

16. Advertisement Discounts on Irrigation Australia Publications

Receive significant discounts on advertising in the Irrigation Journal. The Irrigation Journal is distributed each quarter to all members and industry contacts

THE ROLE OF SCADA SYSTEMS IN IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT

SNAPSHOT

• Modern custom automation networks, known as SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) monitor, centralise and coordinate virtually every machine or sensor that can ‘talk’.

• Custom dashboards display the information in a standardised way in one place.

• The challenge is to enable the irrigation controller to communicate with the SCADA network to share and accept information from different devices. This is achieved with a field server that acts as a translator.

• This article describes the role of field servers and how SCADA systems can help irrigation designers and managers of medium- and large-scale irrigation systems.

Modern custom automation networks, known as SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) applications, are changing the way we manage medium- and large-scale irrigation systems. They monitor, centralise and coordinate virtually every machine or sensor that can ‘talk’. These systems allow managers to make decisions efficiently from a single platform.

Irrigation a natural fit for automation

SCADA systems were originally used mainly in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning industry. Until recently, the irrigation industry was rarely considered for integration because few devices could meet the network protocol requirements. However, there is now a growing awareness that irrigation is a natural fit for automation, opening new possibilities for both designers and managers.

Characteristics of automation systems

Automation systems typically share certain characteristics:

• custom dashboards (user interface screens) that are developed by system integrators according to the needs of the project

• standardised network protocols, such as BACnet, Modbus and RESTful API, and many others, which share data through a server in a format the system can understand

• high security: This class of control system operates entirely within an enterprise firewall without internet or even wireless connections of any type

• Ethernet connections are preferred owing to their high speed, reliability, and security.

Bringing irrigation data together

Modern commercial irrigation controllers are highly specialised and intelligent machines. The trick is to allow them to communicate with the SCADA network, to share and accept information from the management level. In other words, a translator is needed to help irrigation devices convey information to the controller.

The solution: a small ‘field server’ or ‘gateway’ that converts the facility network protocols into controller communications. Examples of these are Hunter’s FS-1000 and FS-3000 field servers, which can integrate with the most common irrigation functions in place for compatible controllers (commercial controllers ACC2 and ICC2).

The numbers 1000 and 3000 in the model names refer to the number of data points they can operate. This common terminology is a useful way to describe the server’s capabilities.

What is a data point in this context? We can view controllers as ‘devices’, that are filled with ‘objects’. Objects are like individual parts of the controller that have specific functions.

To illustrate this with a simplistic example, one object might set the irrigation schedule and another might set the flow rate for a sprinkler system. Within each of these objects, there can be specific information that can be read or written. These pieces of information are the data points. For example, the irrigation schedule object might include data points representing start time, duration and days of the week.

BACnet systems can actually discover the objects and data points for the developer, making it easier for developers to work with the irrigation controller and access its functionalities.

In a bigger or more complex irrigation system, more features need to be integrated, and so more data points are used. A 3000 data point field server could operate two or more ACC2 controllers in typical implementations.

A small ‘field server’ or ‘gateway’ (left) converts the facility network protocols into controller communications. Field servers can integrate with the most common irrigation functions in place for compatible controllers (right).

The less feature-rich but economical ICC2 controllers could make full use of a 1000 data point server.

With proper documentation, the field server allows the developers direct access to all commands, functions and reports in the controller directly, in their own language. They simply draw their own buttons, forms, and graphics around the commands and information that already exist, creating a look and feel that is consistent with the rest of their system.

Shared intelligence

Connected controllers provide detailed flow reports, irrigation logs, and perhaps most importantly alarm conditions, in the same style as the rest of the devices in the system. The controllers can be programmed for automatic irrigation or adjusted and used to operate valves manually.

This creates a whole new world of possibilities for irrigation management because different devices in the same network can share information and interact with great flexibility. For example, if the network is monitoring the fire alarm system, it can also cancel irrigation when an alarm is detected, so that full pressure and flow are available for firefighters.

Imagine a central intelligence that can coordinate irrigation activity with pump stations, water tanks, external sensors, and weather stations. All these devices are available with networkcompatible controls. The developer can create irrigation interactions with any of these other devices, for example:

• leakage and pipe breaks are monitored, and master valves can be closed automatically when these alarms are reported

• weather data (or soil moisture information) can be used to adjust application amounts based on local conditions

• irrigation can be scaled back or canceled if pressure loss is detected

• water sources can be controlled and switched according to tank level sensors

• irrigation can be paused when a filter backwash is detected

Physical installation

The field servers can be located anywhere within the same network as the controller. They can be at the irrigation controller location, or in a nearby building with an available network connection, or in rack mounts in a server room. Controllers simply connect to the same network via LAN (Local Area Network) modules with a standard Ethernet receptacle, and the rest is network magic.

Role of the irrigation designer

The designer can be the critical link in planning for automation success, by facilitating discussion and understanding between network professionals, integrators, and irrigation managers.

This does not require networking expertise, and a hatful of tech acronyms. The designer is best suited to understand the critical needs of the landscape, and the type of information needed to do this job well. The network people control access to all devices. The system integrator creates the screens that allow the irrigation managers to save water, maintain a healthy landscape, and create management reports.

IRRIGATION AUTOMATION IN SMART CITIES – SOME EXAMPLES

• A metropolis in the United Arab Emirates replaced an existing traditional central control system with ACC2 Ethernet controllers. They already had an existing DNP3 SCADA system, designed for power utility management. The controllers were successfully integrated into this protocol. This system has helped them reduce their water use by 30 per cent compared with their previous system.

• A vast new-construction residential complex in northern Egypt installed almost 200 ACC2 decoder controllers and integrated them into their Modbus TCP automation system. The controllers are also integrated with water tanks, pump stations, and the fire system.

• The Administrative Capital of Egypt has deployed IoT platform technologies in the new command operation centre to reduce consumption and cost, using a central intelligence system that coordinates irrigation activity with pump stations, water tanks, pressure, external environmental sensors, and weather stations.

• Other real estate developments in the Middle East and elsewhere have begun using unified operation centers that control and manage irrigation and other systems to provide sustainable solutions for their gated compounds.

Dave Shoup, senior product manager, Hunter Industries

Irrigation data is consolidated in a custom dashboard. Left: Irrigation status view. Right: Operator view with controls.

Rack-mounted field servers.

NEW PRODUCTS

PLASSON

Rainwater harvesting: BUCCHI tank adaptors

Connecting rainwater tanks to an irrigation system can be a bit of a headache. The job can involve ladders, ropes, confined spaces, and a cast of thousands – OK, usually only two, but two is a crowd in some install situations!

This problem can be overcome with BUCCHI fittings, which have recently become available in Australia. BUCCHI is an Italian company that specialises in push-in polypropylene couplings for tanks as well as polyethylene and intermediate bulk containers. The fittings are designed for farming, irrigation and industrial applications.

The adaptors can be installed quickly and easily from outside the tank, allowing access to previously inaccessible spots, and can even be installed on a full tank of water. Their design eliminates guesswork – it is simply a matter of cutting a hole and inserting the fitting.

Other features of these adaptors include:

• resistance to oxidation, atmospheric agents and sunlight aging

• they can be used on plastic or steel tanks

IN THE NEXT ISSUE

The Spring 2023 issue of Irrigation Australia Journal will feature:

EDITORIAL

> Innovation in irrigation – tools, techniques and policies

> Centre pivot and travelling irrigation systems

ADVERTISING FEATURE

> Automatic control

CONFIRM YOUR ADVERTISING PRESENCE NOW!

Contact Brian Rault on 0411 354 050 or email brian.rault@bcbmedia.com.au

• an innovative high-tech elastomer seals and engineering, which means they do not require maintenance

• they fit any tank that is between 2 and 12 mm thick. The special gaskets also allow them to seal watertight on irregular walls of variable thickness

• the reduced male female option is ideal for inserting rigid internal suction pipes or external taps with a male thread

• the range runs 1/2" to 2" in M or MF threaded options

• they can withstand a range of temperatures, stress, vibrations, corrosion and weather conditions and guarantee a hydraulic seal up to 4 bar.

• they are engineered to handle dynamic movement and significant elastic deformations without changing original shape.

Information. PLASSON Australia is the exclusive distributor for BUCCHI tank adaptors. For more visit www.plasson.com. au

Float valve connection with BUCCHI.

BUCCHI tank install.

BUCCHI tank elbow install.

BUCCHI tank adaptors.

MEET THE TEAM

DAVE CAMERON Chief Executive Officer IAL Brisbane Office Dave.cameron@irrigation.org.au

NAOMI CARRAGHER Business Administration Manager/Company Secretary IAL Brisbane Office Naomi.carragher@irrigation.org.au

STUART ALEXANDER

Senior Trainer & Assessor

IAL Brisbane Office

Stuart.alexander@irrigation.org.au

MADDISON COWARD

Training and Certification Administration Officer

IAL Brisbane Office

Maddison.coward@irrigation.org.au

GEOFF HARVEY National Training, Certification & Marketing Manager IAL Brisbane Office Geoff.harvey@irrigation.org.au

KASEY BARTON

Training and Certification Coordinator IAL Brisbane Office

Kasey.barton@irrigation.org.au

TRACY MARTIN National Membership & Regions Manager IAL Perth Office

Tracy.martin@irrigation.org.au

MARIKE FRONEMAN Accountant IAL Brisbane Office

Marike.froneman@irrigation.org.au

REBECCA NEW WA Projects Officer

IAL Perth Office Rebecca.new@irrigation.org.au

MARTINE HAARHOFF

Business Administration Assistant IAL Brisbane Office

Martine.haarhoff@irrigation.org.au

ASHLEIGH LANG Office Junior Administrator IAL Brisbane Office

Ashleigh.lang@irrigation.org.au

IRRIGATION AUSTRALIA OFFICE

PO Box 13, Cannon Hill, Queensland 4170

T 1300 949 891 or 07 3517 4000 F 07 3517 4010

W www.irrigationaustralia.com.au

CEO: Dave Cameron E dave.cameron@irrigation.org.au

EDITORIAL Editor | EVE WHITE E evewhiteediting@gmail.com

ADVERTISING

BCB Media | Managing Director | Brian Rault T 0411 354 050 E brian.rault@bcbmedia.com.au

DESIGN & PRODUCTION

Uber Creative | Director | Annette Epifanidis

T 03 8516 4717 E annette@ubercreative.com.au

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Advertising in this journal is managed by BCB Media on behalf of Irrigation Australia Limited. All contact with businesses and organisations about advertising is made by BCB Media staff, who must identify themselves and the fact that they work for BCB Media on behalf of the IAL.

Advertising enquiries should be directed to BCB Media.

No special consideration will be given to any advertisers as far as editorial content or front cover material is concerned. Decisions about editorial content and the front cover are the prerogative of the editor and the National Board of the IAL.

Irrigation Australia Limited takes no responsibility for the technical accuracy of article content.