Parched Australia farmers vote to abandon irrigation: ‘I just want the nightmare to end’
By PETER KER
March 26, 2010
THE winds of social change are gathering speed across Victoria, after irrigators in one of state’s most drought-ravaged districts virtually voted themselves out of existence last night. More than 70 per cent of the 153 farmers in the Campaspe Irrigation District say they wish to cease irrigating. They declared their intention at an extraordinary community meeting in Rochester last night. Those 108 farmers control more than 90 per cent of water in the Campaspe district – which sprawls north of Bendigo and includes Rochester – meaning the district will be decommissioned after almost half a century of irrigation. The region is fed by parched Lake Eppalock, and irrigators have received no water supply in four of the past five years. Victorian water officials will spend the next fortnight trying to strike a sale of the water entitlements to the federal government, as part of efforts to to boost the health of the Murray-Darling river system. Some farmers will simply leave the land, while others will convert their properties to different types of farming that require less water. Just 26 of the 153 farmers in the district said they wanted to continue irrigating, and water officials said they would find new ways to accommodate those wishes. Events in the Campaspe district are seen as a portent of things to come across northern Victoria, as a drying climate forces marginal farms to the wall. Local dairy farmer Julie Campbell recently told The Age she intended to cease irrigating because the river flows had fundamentally changed. ”I don’t see a future here, I just want the nightmare to end,” she said. …
