Australia farmers stranded as irrigation supply cut off
By PETER KER
April 5, 2010 THEY are enthusiastic young farmers with an eye on the latest technology and a belief that Victoria must modernise its farming sector to survive. They want to help feed the masses for decades to come, and hope one of their four sons – all younger than eight – will one day take over the beef farm. But now, 12 years after Alan and Sonia Martin built their farm from scratch, the Victorian government is on the verge of shutting them down. The Martins belong to the Campaspe Irrigation District, a parched farm network suddenly decommissioned last month by Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Project, the state authority charged with reforming Victoria’s irrigation sector. The district, which has had almost no water for five years, was shut down after more than 70 per cent of local farmers said they would prefer to be paid incentives to cease irrigating. The number wanting to leave was higher than expected, and NVIRP decided the number staying would be too small to support, so the system was declared defunct. That means those wanting to continue irrigating, such as the Martins, have been stranded without a water supply despite NVIRP’s guarantees to accommodate their wish to continue. …
