Soil conservation

It was a great decision when the Government brought in the Soil Conservation Authority.  With their assistance,  supplying all the fencing material and labour, they did an enormous job right throughout the whole district.

One of the tragedies of the present Kennett government,  they have done away with them.   Soil conservation should have been left in its own identity.   Now they have bought in the NCDNR.  

Once they dismantled the Soil Conservation,  all the experienced staff that was carrying out all this good work,  could see there was no future,  and they were mixed up with all the no hopers.

They took their long service,  and resigned.   The result  now is we only need two or three  bad winters,  and the erosion side of it is going to be absolutely disastrous.

I have often said to people if you lose an inch of topsoil,   it takes 500 to 1000  yrs for nature to reclaim that.

So you can just imagine the devastation that will take place with a lot of these works that was carried out in the late 50s right through to the 60s.   Most of that will go back to what it was.

I maintained that maintenance of the erosion area  here  now is no problem at all,  with all the trees,  the eroded area with all the silt traps and certain areas where we have raised the floor up. 

We had a 60’ ft deep creek and  sheer banks  that eroded every winter,   and becoming worse and worse.   I raised the floor in certain areas at least 30 ft,  which means there is millions and millions of cubic yards of soil held back in silt which would have gone into the Wannon River and into the Glenelg.   You can just imagine the benefits that has been gained.   Plus,  the fact that the value has been put onto the area with no erosion problem,  it has made it a magnificent farm.

In the initial stages,   Downs was the  Chairman of the Soil Conservation,  and Mac Woods was the Deputy Chairman,   with Baisie Hawton was the Minister of Conservation back in the Liberal Govt.   I’ve got photos of Baisie here with me.  They set up all their little units in all the towns.

We were selected here because we were the originals,  where they first started their soil prevention works.    They looked all over Victoria,  and it was here in this particular area ,  because of the steepness of the hills,  and being ploughed years ago,  which started the erosion in the gullies.

Up at Heathcote the main problems there was the underground tunneling,   they come up with the assessment,  that of all the areas they looked at,  this particular area of ours and over at Pitches  was the worst most active area that they had seen.

They come up and said,   if they could make a success amongst the worst of it,   eventually the whole scheme would have to be a success.

So that’s how we became involved in it.   I also realized without their assistance,   something would have to be done.   But without their help,  no way could it have been done in such a quick time without that Government assistance.

There were perhaps 8 or 9 of their staff fencing down there,  so you can just imagine the kick we were given out of that,  to have that all done and the stock kept out of it.    So I started to grow all my own trees,  and that in itself too was the major reason why the whole thing is ‘land for wildlife’.  They did a segment on it here. 

I’ve got a copy of the Article that I wrote on what was carried out here,  and it was highly rated.   It was rated the most improved  land for wildlife areas that had been carried out in Victoria.

Years ago,  you couldn’t cross the creeks there,   and it was just wasteland.   Now we have good traffic crossings,   which you can get over with your equipment now.   I would say now,  that what was the worst,  is now something of great benefit.

Most times there is good stock watering.   The only thing now is,  the water still runs,  but with all the build up of silt and everything,   with the amount of water used by the trees,  the creek now doesn’t flow during the summer.

I could see that,  and I said to the Soil Conservation,   that we will turn that area into dry areas during the summer,  and I was proved right.   To overcome it,   we’ve put in some big dams.   With the rainfall the last few winters,  it has been a bit of a problem,   and  they are down,  but that will come back to normal in the future.

When  all this land previously  was heavily cropped,   and using the horses around the hills,  they could not contour around the hills,  as they were slipping.    So the only way they could do it properly,  was up and down the hill.  

Of course,  with this type of ploughing,  that created an enormous vast flow of water.    I remember Dad saying all the gullies down there had silver tussocks in them,   that would have reinforced them.    But once they put the plough in,  and ploughed it all,  the water ran down these furrows up and down.  

If they had of instead ploughed around the hills,   that would have been the main reason why the erosion occurred in the first place.

In the 46 flood,  that creek was up at least half a mile in the one year,  at a depth of around 60 ft,  and 3 or 4 chain wide,  so you can imagine the damage that has done to our rivers.    It has been an absolute disaster.

Back in those days too,  the rabbits burrowed into the banks  and sides,  and caused a lot of erosion.

You couldn’t grow a tree because of the rabbits determination to survive and eat the tree.  They could chew through the netting by pulling it backwards and forwards with their teeth ‘til they fractured it.  That’s how clever they were.   And they were there in their hundreds and thousands.   You would never have been able to grow a tree down there.

Getting rid of the rabbits was essential.    I was good friends with the Shire engineer Joe Wright,  and good cobbers with the dozer driver Duncan Rogers,  and one day I said to Joe “What are you going to do with the dozer during the Christmas holidays”  when the staff took about a months leave.

I said “Is there any chance of leaving it up home ?  I’ve spoken to the driver,  and he is prepared to come up and make a few bob.”    He said  “No worries Tom “.    So I had the dozer here over the holidays,  so you can imagine the advantage I took of that.

When I first put in my first block,  I used my tractor and scoop.   But when it came to the major works,   I would not have been able to accomplish what I have done now without the heavy equipment,  such as the dozer.

All in all there has been an enormous effort put into it.   Having watched the erosion for a lifetime,  I had a fair idea what I was faced with,  and how to go about and make these constructions.

The Soil Conservation had a lack of knowledge of the kind of soil we had here,  they wasted an enormous amount of money by dealing in mass solid concrete,   not realizing the shrinkage in the soil could be up to six inches in summer.   When they put the shoots in,  in mass concrete,  and diverted water with levy banks to these areas,   when the rain went down between the soil and the concrete,  it just collapsed the whole structure.   They lost just about every structure that they did here.

I often thought to myself I’d like to be given  a quarter of the money that they spent here.   I said to them that they would be a failure,  but it is hard to get through to people with an education and confidence in themselves.     They overlooked my natural knowledge of the land.

 The big structure I put in in 63,  between the two creeks,  it has proved  itself.   It was done in three structures,  working in conjunction with the State Rivers,   Peter McGoran.   He said you cannot go over in your initial stages of bank construction,  I think it was,  16 or 18ft height.   If you do,  you have to take core samples and draw up a plan with specifications.   I could see his reasoning,  and if you put in a bank and didn’t to it properly,  it could take bridges and everything,  and do enormous damage downstream below.

My first one was about 8 to 9 ft in height,  done with my own tractor.    I avoided working in solid concrete,  because of the cost and boxing.   I have more or less working in with nature,  using the soil by pushing the banks in with the dozer,  creating a big wedge type that went up into the floor of the creek that went up a hundred yards. 

This took the pressure off the bank because as the water rose,   it came up against this big tapered reinforced bank.   At the back of it, I used enormous blue stone boulders,  and crowded them.   They are porous,  and there is no build up of water.   The bank structure is more or less a stone barrier that you often see  nature has provided.

The yabbies were also a problem,  they could create little holes and go round.   I had water flowing through blue stone barriers,  which are still there now.    When I suggested it to our local chief engineer John Knudson,  he said I was too ambitious,  we won’t be able to control it,  we are talking about a thousand acres of catchment.

To go down there and see the big floods and shaking structures underneath,  you would think nothing could control it.    I had enough experience to know if you were going to control nature in floods,  you could not leave anything to chance.

 Now with the way it is silted,  it is  contained here magnificently.

 So overall,  going right back to the start of the century,  with what Dad’s done,  when there was only two redgum trees,  a cowshed,  a very ordinary home,   we have come a long way.

 I haven’t been sitting on my backside.   Although I worked for nothing,  I could always see a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 I’ve just been patient,  knowing for this to be handed down to the fourth generation,  well,   you had to put in a lot of effort,  although at the time it may not have seemed to be rewarding.

I’m dam sure you can achieve the same thing John (Kane),   if you look to the future and make sure it is going to be beneficial to the future.   Good on ya.