WISALTS INC WHITTINGTON INTERCEPTOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE LAND TREATMENT SOCIETY

1. WISALTS INC WHITTINGTON INTERCEPTOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE LAND TREATMENT SOCIETY Mr Tom Mills was the founder of WISALTS in 1978 and he was proudly supported by Mr Lloyd Richards who was the Inaugural President of WISALTS, the Society whose aim was and is to support and promote the experiences, research and theories of Mr Henry Samuel Whittington, OAM (Harry Whittington as he was more commonly known) relating to the escalating soil and water problems in Western Australia. Part of this support and promotion was the production about 1980 by Mr Whittington and inaugural secretary Mr Laurie Adamson of a half hour audio visual lecture for the benefit of WISALTS members and other interested persons. Mr Adamson has transcribed and edited the verbal commentary accompanying that lecture – an extremely difficult job to turn those spoken words into sensible, easy to follow written words. Past President Mrs Pam McGregor typed Mr Adamson’s written notes, and Mrs Sally Paulin, secretary of WISALTS until February 2008 married the slides and words into a presentation to be added to the WISALTS website.

2. MR HARRY WHITTINGTON, OAM I am Harry Whittington, of Springhill Farm, Brookton, Western Australia and I welcome you to this Soil Conservation Programme – an educational programme endeavouring to show you the various breakdowns in the soil, and soil fertility. Whilst salinity is a problem, which is seen as a major problem, there are other symptoms of the various stages of Soil Degradation. It is the loss of production which concerns us most. Water supply is also a major concern in WA when most people live in the south of the State.

3. DENSE CLOVER PASTURES Most of us have never seen, or have almost forgotten, what certain improved pastures look like.

4. SUNNY BRAE, DANGIN We now produce good crops, similar to this crop, when we have ideal conditions after we have applied super, and we have applied large quantities of chemicals to control pests in our crops.

5. SPRINGHILL – VERY POOR WATERLOGGED CROP The crop you see in this slide is the result of waterlogging and a chemical breakdown of the soil that has taken place. In most such places as this, it is a biological imbalance that has taken place in the soil. Fertilisers which have been applied to the soils are not available to the wheat plant in conditions like this which is due to the chemical breakdown of the soil structure.

6. SPRINGHILL – EARLY PHOTO OF HOMESTEAD AND STACK. This slide is reproduced courtesy of C.A.L.M., the Department of Agriculture and the Institute of the Encyclopedia of Western Australia. 1. You will note that the orchard near the Springhill homestead is still flourishing. 2. The organic fibre, and the stubble mulch, which has been left on the ground, is being returned back to the soil by the soil animals, or the biology of the soil. 3. The creek, which was the main drainage line of the property, is marked by the York Gum tree on the right hand side of this slide.

7. SPRINGHILL – HW’S FATHER IN THE LUSH GARDEN OF SPRINGHILL This slide would have been taken about 1926-1927 when everything around the homestead would have been at its peak of production. Note that the roses and other garden plants are strong and healthy.

8. SPRINGHILL – HW’S AGING FATHER AT SPRINGHILL Meanwhile, we may have gathered from this slide that my father has aged. It could have been taken at the same time of the year (as the previous slide) but the garden has deteriorated and changes are now taking place in the soil. This photo would have been taken about 1946. About ten years have gone by and the garden has deteriorated because my aging father did not have the strength to look after the garden. It could have been a late break to the season, or a very wet season, or there were a number of insect pests which were now starting to show up. All of these things can be explained away very easily, but the fact remains that something else more serious has been taking place in the soil.

9. SPRINGHILL That lush valley floor, adjacent to the drainage creek which we saw in a previous slide with the stubble mulch on the valley floor, has now become a waterlogged paddock and the water is now moving parallel to the creek. It can’t make its way to the creek because of a barrier but the water is now travelling parallel to the creek which is an indication that the soil structure is changing. But at that time, we didn’t understand the changes that were taking place in the soil, and in the area parallel to the creek.

10. SPRINGHILL – EROSION – MR HARRY WHITTINGTON IS STANDING IN THIS DEEP EROSION WASHOUT IN HIS PADDOCK. It is the result of uncontrolled water flow from the upper slopes of this paddock that has caused this deep erosion channel down to the C horizon. Something drastic has to be done on the upper slopes to prevent this valuable farming land paddock from being so badly eroded as well as a severe loss of production.

11. SPRINGHILL – SEVERE WATERLOGGING PROBLEMS This paddock looked like a bare waste land. Pastures were poor, and the production was nil. The stock carrying capacity of this paddock was very low. The upper slopes of this paddock were pretty bare. The applied super has all gone down the creek. This paddock is now full of bog holes and bare ground.

12. SPRINGHILL – THE PASTURE FURROWS; DEEP EROSION DOWNHILL GULLY; ABSORPTION BANKS This slide would have been taken about the late 1940’s when the Springhill farm production problem was disastrous. To start with, we used the Agriculture Department’s recommendation of putting in pasture furrows which were of very little use: they have no real control of the waterlogging and erosion problem. We then went in to putting in absorption banks, and they, of course, were about as much use to the real problem of waterlogging and erosion as were the pasture furrows, but it still meant that we had water being held, and then going on down the paddock, and still giving us a waterlogging problem. The fertility of the soil was still being washed away. This was something we have to consider: we still have the loss of production on the upper slope of the farm.

13. SPRINGHILL – HW STANDING IN THE FIRST INTERCEPTOR BANK – THIS WAS AFTER A HEAVY 8 INCH RAINFALL! Having been through the exercise of pasture furrows and the absorption banks, we then looked for other means and discovered that the water was travelling over the hard pan, or in this case, the plow sole. Having made this breakthrough about the hard pan in 1954, we found that we had to intercept the water at that hard pan level. We then tried our first interceptor banks up on the side of the hill. Whilst we had some mistakes, the success we had there gave us the strength and encouragement to go on further with this new, true interceptor system of soil conservation. Just shortly after the first banks were constructed , in February 1955 we had eight inches of rain (or some 200mm) in one week and the banks were put to the test. One can observe that the uncompacted soil had slumped over the old washout, but they did hold.

14. A WATERLOGGED PADDOCK This slide shows the uncontrolled movement of water coming across the saturated paddock and ponding near the left side of the slide. One can notice that some of the trees, the older trees, have lost their leaves and are in very poor shape; the younger trees are doing a little bit better but as the ground structure changes and is closer to the surface, their tree roots will become affected, and they will deteriorate also. This is a progressive problem, one we don’t like to see very much, but more research is needed on waterlogging problems.

15. BROOKTON AREA – A CULTIVATED PADDOCK AFTER A SHARP SHOWER OF RAIN – SOME SURFACE EROSION In this slide we see a gentle slope on a well worked paddock, ready for broad acre seeding. Twenty points of rain (5mm) fell in one sharp shower. Note the fertile soil that has been washed off the paddock into the water table along side of the road. Even in this mildly sloping paddock, contour working could be considered to stop possible sheet erosion.

16. YORK-NORTHAM ROAD – WATERLOGGING ON THE LOWER SLOPES A similar situation of water moving over the hard pan in a paddock near the York-Northam Road, fairly close to the hill top, but notice the waterlogging that has occurred in that cultivated hard pan type of catchment. There is a hard pan developing all over the area.

17. THE GOOMALLING BRIDGE NEAR NORTHAM Uncontrolled water in any one paddock doesn’t show up very much but where you see all the flow of water in the Avon River at the Goomalling Bridge near Northam and Toodyay when the wet spell had been nine days previous to this photo being taken, and the water was still seeping from the paddocks into the river, I wonder how many farmers would wish that they had that water back in their paddocks in September or early October? It would be hard to estimate how much super would have been leached down into the river.

18. THE DALE RIVER NEAR BEVERLEY ON DES MOIR’S PROPERTY SUB-SURFACE WATERLOGGING This problem is water coming in from long distances away. Sub-surface waterlogging is coming down from the fertile upper slopes, and it is coming in faster than it can make its way into the Dale River, and it is now seen as a waterlogged area. If your paddock is in this condition, your production is very limited due to the chemical breakdown of the soil, resulting in less fertiliser being available to the plants. Even the trees are in a poor state of health!

19. THE DALE RIVER – GRADE INTERCEPTOR BANKS, DES MOIR’S PROPERTY From the air, we can see the uncleared area, to the mid right of this slide, which has never been touched, never been cultivated but the hard pan has occurred right through the middle of the uncleared zone. This waterlogging is, of course, going to kill all of these trees unless firm control is taken to control the movement of water over the hard pan which is near the surface in that particular area.

20. DALE RIVER AREA – DES MOIR’S FARM Looking at the other side of the grade bank, you can see where the problem is stationery. Yes, if your paddock is on that condition and you haven’t got a problem, then you are going to have one shortly. The majority of the water you can see in the right foreground similar to the previous slide, is not on the surface but just below the surface. The pastures are not growing very well, the clover pasture has disappeared completely, cape weed is struggling to survive, wimera rye grass is not doing too badly, but is only about 30% of the production that it could be. A production of this proportion makes most farmers unviable.

21. DALE RIVER – WATERLOGGING AND THE START OF THE GRADE INTERCEPTOR BANK Waterlogging that is visible on the surface of the neighbour’s paddock has been intercepted by a grade interceptor bank next to the road, and is draining surplus water to the west and into the Dale River. This grade bank also controls the farmer’s sub-surface water coming off the paddock upslope, coming in from the left of the slide.

22. SUNNY BRAE, DANGIN This is an aerial unframed photo of a waterlogged valley floor problem in the Quairading Shire (Dangin WA). This country was selected in 1904 and was mostly cleared by the 1950’s. There were many sub-surface recharge areas with throughflows feeding into this heavy forest valley floor. The main sub-surface throughflows exit from this 11km and 4km valley floor problem is a Barrier that has formed, or it may have been a permanent barrier across the throughflow 500 metres down from the half visible dam on the edge of the slide. This barrier effectively cuts off the flow of water from the valley floor causing the valley floor to become fully waterlogged after 30 years of farming. The house dam was enlarged in 1950 which resulted in a metre of salt water showing up the level of water in the valley floor. The valley floor crops then started to lose production and damp patches started to become obvious to the trained eye. How to read the early signs of land degradation and know how to take effective action to maintain a successful sustainable Soil Conservation System: The white water dams are fresh water; the dark coloured dams indicate the amount of salt that is in the dam water and soil profile (the darker the more salty). A flood mitigation and soil conservation catchment plan was drawn up and costed for this Craigs Well Catchment project, that was to include five farmers’ properties in this 11km x 4kms area, but none of the farmers were interested in implementing the plan. They obviously preferred to put up their fences again after a flood. So be it!

23. A REAFFORESTATION PROJECT – FOREST DIEBACK We are very quick to condemn the clearing of land and its cultivation by farmers, but here we find a problem which is known as the Jarrah Dieback Problem because of the large quantities of build up of Phytophthora cinnamomi in the soil. It has had a lot of research to isolate the cause of the build up of these bacteria. Most of the dieback affected areas appear to have sub-surface water accumulation.

24. REAFFORESTATION This area has been planted with what was known as Jarrah Dieback trees. They were not very successful but this is not being critical of the exercise, but it is a warning to all of us that something is taking place in the soil, and planting trees on their own is a futile exercise unless we stabilise the soil. These trees have been in the ground for a considerable number of years (over fifteen) and what we have left is pretty useless, but the deterioration is still taking place in the soil.

25. ROCKY GULLY/PERILLUP – HENDERSON’S FARM IN THE SOUTH WEST WATERLOGGING IN THE CLEARED LAND; TREES IN THE FOREST DIE BECAUSE OF WATERLOGGING In the south west around Denbarker and Rocky Gully, we see forest land, uncleared, is deteriorating. In the background the structure has broken down severely. Waterlogging, the lack of pasture growth, and dying trees are all signs of land degradation.

26. HENDERSON’S FARM Looking at the sodden valley, in the opposite direction to the last slide, the trees in the valley floor have died, the forest in the background is still OK but the forest is still shedding its water, which is creating the waterlogging problem in this valley floor.

27. SHEET EROSION IN WA (SITE UN-NAMED) Erosion problems occur when water is taken from the upper slopes, and because of the biological imbalance in the soil, together with the lack of organic fibres in the soil, plants do not grow correctly, causing the upper slopes to shed water, resulting in sheet erosion. Because of the increased run-off from the upper slopes, this contributes to the washouts down the paddock. What is the production of a paddock like this? Not only that, but we have the salt scalds appearing in the paddocks.

28. SOUTH AUSTRALIA – CONTOUR WORK ON KANGAROO ISLAND Here we see contours, well laid out, well spaced. Some contour banks are holding, some are not. They are really, in most cases, absorption banks, but in some cases they may have been lucky enough to hit the hard pan, and direct the water coming from the top of the hill, travelling around the contour, finding a weak spot and then making its way down to the valley floor. Surface and sub-surface water control has to begin from the top of the hill.

29. LAND DEGRADATION - ILLUSTRATION OF THE SOIL PROFILE Land degradation is something we do not really see, but looking at this soil profile, we see the most fertile soil is at the top. The accumulation of water will be over the plow sole, and below that is the accumulation of gypsum, the iron oxides, the salts and all the other soil nutrients in the soil. Below that is the hard pan. If you are excavating a dam to hold fresh water, and you run into this type of soil, you are advised to stop immediately, and seal off the bottom with good quality clays, but you must expect to have a salt dam. Or define a new site away from the static water zone.

30. SPRINGHILL – A BACKHOE PIT TO SHOW A SOIL PROFILE This backhoe pit goes down for three metres which is well below the zone of water, to where there is no water. The reconstructed soil which is going back to a base material, just below the upper water zone. There is no water coming up through this base C horizon soil.

31. SPRINGHILL – THIS BACKHOE PIT SHOWS THE BASE MATERIAL This backhoe pit is down three metres to the impervious C Horizon containing the gypsum, iron oxides, salt and other nutrients.

32. SPRINGHILL – BACKHOE PIT This pit is down three metres from the surface to the hard impervious C Horizon. There is no sign of water coming up from this hard base material.

33. RAIN, TREES AND SOIL – HARRY WHITTINGTON’S EARLY DIAGRAM OF THE SOIL PROFILE. In the earlier days before farming took place, we had trees, and an understorey which protected the soils from excessive heavy rainfall events. The humus was rotting on the ground and held the moisture. The surplus water went on down to the rivers. Whilst this exercise used the rain, the forest floor was returning the mulch back to the soil, and we had an environment which could carry on for many many years, similar to the many thousands of years before.

34. CHANGES IN THE SOIL STRUCTURE Having cleared the understorey or trees, and used up all the valuable mulches on the ground, we found that water moved rather quickly. We created sunken areas as you see in this particular area. Unfortunately, the plow sole which formed just under the surface increased the water shed, and the water which normally made its way down to the underground reservoirs or aquifers didn’t make its way there so we had a lot of water going over the surface creating a waterlogging or erosion problem.

35. WATER CONTROL ILLUSTRATION To control the movement of water from the slopes to the valley floor, it is necessary to control the water from the top of the hill if possible to the valley floor. The Interceptor Bank must, of course, intercept the throughflow of water at the surface, and at the hard pan, and when this is done, we have the exclusion of water from the top of the hill going to the valley floor

36. SPRINGHILL HOMESTEAD An early photo of Springhill, and the new soil conservation earthworks. This photo would have been taken about 1958 – 1959 and the timbered water reserve in the foreground. The first earthworks were constructed to the north of Springhill homestead and the water reserve to help control the developing salinity problem in the valley floor in front of the homestead and creekline seen just to the middle of this slide. The first earthworks on the middle left of the slide were constructed 12 years before the banks on the lower right of the slide. Given a few more years, they will be equal to those of the first constructed banks in the mid-left of the picture, but there has been a cast improvement in the valley water control.

37. SPRINGHILL – DEVELOPING SALINITY PROBLEMS Taking a closer look at this soil conservation problem, we notice a darker wet patch of ground on the right hand side of the slide, indicating that a sub-surface throughflow channel has not been cut off by the interceptor bank. The remainder of the other soils are of a fairly even colour, so that there is no new accumulation of water in this vicinity.

38. SPRINGHILL – THE DARK WATERLOGGED PATCH OF GROUND Let’s go down for a closer look at that dark wet patch behind the interceptor bank which we were looking at, where the seepage is coming through. You will notice the fixed features – the windmill and the trees, and the old water reserve which has regenerated , the hill in the background – an the vehicles which can move away. This windmill, pumping fresh water from a throughflow in the salt affected area, was an important landmark for WISALTS.

39. SPRINGHILL – DEFINING THE THROUGHFLOW This slide shows that a backhoe was used to cut down to the bottom of the throughflow area. Notice the red oxides, gypsum and salt accumulation. In this instance, a good quality sealing clay from a nearby dam was used to seal the leaking throughflow, which was the only method we knew of at that time.

40. SPRINGHILL – SEEPAGE CONTROL We learned from this particular exercise that until we can control the sub-surface movement of water, the chemical interaction will break down the soil. Having filled the trench with good quality clay, the clay seal should last for eight years. But in twelve months after sealing this bank, the improvement that has taken place is thanks to Laurie Adamson for defining this simple problem. The windmill is still in the same place, the trees are still there, and that little dark wet patch has disappeared. Yes, we can control water at the surface and the sub-surface level.

41. QUAIRADING – SEALING OFF A THROUGHFLOW WITH A BLADE – AN EARLY EXPERIMENT IN SEALING A THROUGHFLOW USING A DOZER BLADE AND PLASTIC SHEETING This helper person is testing the bottom of the trench to see that all of the throughflow leaking soil has been taken out by the blade. The broad trench certainly takes out the possible collapse of the trench for added safety, but unfortunately the dozer blade may not take out all of the throughflow leaking soil. The backhoe probably gives the best results used in conjunction with the plastic sheeting.

42. SPRINGHILL WATER RESERVE This is the water reserve on Springhill, where some of the early teamsters, travelling form further away from their eastern area properties, had camped overnight on their way to the Brookton railhead. Note that the older trees may have died form waterlogging, but after the interceptor bank system was installed, and the waterlogging had been controlled, new trees have germinated and they are growing strongly. We talk about land degradation and what it is doing to the area, but by reversing the trend, we find that the trees are returning. These new trees are very healthy.

43. SPRINGHILL – REVERSING THE EROSION AND WATERLOGGING PROBLEM This is the site of the early interceptor bank, up on the slopes of Springhill where we saw bare ground, poor pastures and deep washouts. We talk about land degradation and what it is doing too many areas, but reversing the trend as you see in this slide is the most important feature of this exercise.

44. SPRINGHILL – HAVING REVERSED THE TREND Yes, we have reversed the land degradation trend! Here we are looking down the slope to where the ground was bare, and erosion was rampant. We now see strong pasture growth, no erosion problem and healthy trees growing behind the bank, now that the water is under control on the slopes. A very satisfactory result.

45. SPRINGHILL – THE INTERCEPTOR SYSTEM This interceptor bank is nearly full. It has not been filled by surface flow but it has been slowly filled by a sub-surface flow over a hard pan. This paddock is not as steep as in the last slide but the sub-surface water movement is under control with this interceptor bank. This is a large volume of water – one may feel that it cannot hold any more water, but with more rain, it can still hold a lot more.

46. SPRINGHILL – ALLENDALE HOUSE – SHEDS AND PASTURE This level interceptor bank is nearly full, but it will still hold a lot more water. It has been filled by sub-surface water flow over the soil hard pan. The area behind the level interceptor bank is not waterlogged and it is safe to drive on. You will note that the area behind the interceptor bank is comparatively dry, but one would expect the ground to be saturated and waterlogged. The water in the interceptor bank can, by capillary action, make its way back up through the soil

47. EAST OF THE DALE RIVER – WATERLOGGING PROBLEMS THIS STILL HAS TO BE REVISED This is the start of the grade interceptor bank on Mr Des Moir’s property, where there is a large accumulation of water. We are looking at the leached sandhill areas in the foreground, and the accumulation of water in the lake making its way across the roadway into his neighbour’s paddock. The grade interceptor bank has been designed to pick up sub-surface water from several areas.

48. THE DALE RIVER AREA The tree lined Dale River can be seen to the left of this slide. Looking over this area, we see the crown land – forestry area that has never been touched – see the water accumulation that has occurred right throughout the valley floor. The ground has collapsed and it will take considerable time to bring the area back into production.

49. DALE RIVER AREA – HOW THE FARMER CAN REMAIN VIABLE The control of this water in this flat area, adjacent to the Dale River, is quite a big task to confront any landholder. But if he wishes to remain viable and increase his production, he will have to take control of the water movement in this catchment and put it into the Dale Rover.

50. DALE RIVER AREA – PICKING UP THE NEIGHBOUR’S SURPLUS WATER From the air, waterlogging and some surface erosion can be seen in the neighbour’s paddock, sub-surface waterlogged areas are obvious in front of the grade interceptor bank. The movement of water in the grade bank across the valley floor is a control programme to use the grade interceptor bank to move water slowly and carefully into the Dale River.