Over 50 farmers are working with us this summer to research groundwater options for their farms as part Phase 2 of #WaterSmartfarms project. Bedrock targets up to 100m are being selected by ground surveys at sites with likely fracturing.

In a decile 1 it’s easy to understand crop potential if you have access to irrigation 🤣. Another reason to think about your farm water security too.

Question posed at Liebe Field Day at Burakin last week noting link with wet subsoils below 700mm from acid sandplain and leakage arriving in valleys nearby? Water table data says yep, highly likely!

Spent a few days measuring subsoil drains last few weeks, removing excess water from crops in GtSthn & SW, to understand opportunities for water management. Two examples running well after strong rains @NikCallow

Last day with farmers in Eyre Peninsula at Warrminda with @jtelferoz + 24 farmers talking water, salinity and WaterSmart farms. Impressive lined catchments being adopted to collect high quality and secure water despite availability of SAWater pipes nearby. Great group @NikCallow

In Eyre Peninsular SA after long dry season talking desalination & looking at unconventional water sources. Seen several plastic sheeted catchments -2ha with 10 ML dams $100-200k built by #WaterSmart farmers @NikCallow

Last @WaterSmartFarm projects 89m deep bore being tested at 150,000 litres per day near Kojonup. Over 50% rate of success for bores of similar depth and salinity - from Merredin to Manjimup.

⁦@DPIRDWA⁩ Water science team testing 2nd last bedrock drill hole (20 drilled) from Merredin to Manjimup (this site) to find water for agriculture. Yields average over 80kL/d from depths to 100m, stock quality or ready to Desal as part of #WaterSmartFarms

Our 2nd largest reservoir after Lake Argyle, Wellington Dams water quality is now almost 1500mg/L, feeding hundreds of SW farms. After 50 years of testing revegetation is it time for tools like desalination?

Not a dollar spent in 20 years as this and another line discharges dry sheep quality water from a hillside seep #gravitysiphoningsalt

Recharge control of low production, wind-scalloped leaky wodjil sandplain is possible with targeted plantings. This one is a private carbon model that mitigates much of the farms emissions and along the way has seen an amazing regeneration of nature

North of Kellerberrin a trial siphon has managed a 5ha saline hillside for over 20 years, with natural revegetation of 200m of creek lines downstream due to constant (35kL/d at 2000mS/m) flow. Discharges of groundwater need to be notified to ensure low impact (SLCAct).

Managing salinity is long term, visited a multi-bore ~3L/sec pumping project Ive been involved with now +30 years on (two generations of effort) to see hectares of crop replacing patchy bare ground near Burakin. Water tables below 2m allowing leaching of excessive salt.

Blackwood River at Nannup flowing strongly and saline off now wet farmland (~6000mgL) at early 2000s river level, but look at 1982 (high in tree), 1946 (below) and recently.

Finally, some mud and winter view from the office window south of Hyden

Talking desalination with Spanish company Sacyr & WaterCorp this week at 100GL RO plant near Myalup. Looking for lessons from industry that we can apply on our #WaterSmartFarms small RO systems. ⁦@DPIRDbroadacre⁩ ⁦@DPIRDWA⁩

Two seasons in a week, dusty trip to Bonaparte to get a decade of data monitoring of Cockatoo sands in dry, then danced on black soils after storms rolled in down the Keep #Kimberleys @DPIRDWA

After this week up north working on Ord expansion, it’s apparent just how different an unregulated (Keep River) river is compared with the (larger) Ord below Lake Argyle, at Ivanhoe Crossing. Especially after a big wet season.

Just completed 80,000ha SkyTEM AEM survey of part of Great Southerns Beaufort palaeochannel to map water for future use by agricultural communities #WaterSmart Farms. Now we start interpreting results with @CSIRO @DPIRDbroadacre