Engineering Commons^™

The Land Is In Your Hands : A Practical Guide For Owners Of Small Rural Landholdings In Western Australia, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Wa

Bulletins 4000 -

This Bulletin discusses various aspects of managing a small farm or property in Western Australia, including soil and land care, vegetation and plant control on farm holdings, water resource management, biosecurity, plant, animal and insect pest control and livestock management.

Roaded Catchments To Improve Reliability Of Farm Dams, David Stanton

Bulletins 4000 -

Maintaining reliable on-farm water supplies is an on-going challenge for landholders throughout Western Australia. Improving reliability of dams by constructing a roaded catchment is one of the most cost-effective methods of improving the performance and reliability of a farm water supply.

A roaded catchment is a water-harvesting structure designed to increase the amount of run-off from the catchment above a dam. The 'roads' of a roaded catchment are parallel ridges of earth with batters (or side slopes) that cause run-off to be directed into troughs or channels. The surface is lined with clay and compacted to make it smooth and …

Deep Drains To Manage Groundwater, Neil Cox, Sylvia Tetlow, Neil Coles

Bulletins 4000 -

A channel that is 1.0 m to 3.0 m in depth is considered to be a deep drain. The drain is excavated to a depth that is sufficient to intercept the watertable in order to capture and convey that groundwater from flat, poorly drained land.

The drain can either be ‘open’ to allow the inflow of surface water or ‘leeved’ to exclude surface water. An open deep drain has its spoil banks placed on one side or on alternate sides of the channel (Figure 1) while a leveed deep drain has continuous spoil banks placed on both sides of the …

Mole Drainage For Increased Productivity In The South West Irrigation Area, D L. Bennett, Richard George, Bill Russell

Bulletins 4000 -

Heavy soils, with low rates of soil-water movement, such as those found in the South-West Irrigation Area (SWIA), require closely spaced (2-6 m apart) subsoil drainage systems to provide sufficient water movement to control the effects of salt-waterlogging on pastures. Such close spacing using traditional buried pipe or tile drainage systems is impractical. As a result, mole drainage systems, used in other parts of the world for over 50 years, have gained popularity in the SWIA in recent years.

This Bulletin Farmnote reports the current ‘best-bet’ mole draining technique for SWIA conditions gathered from observations over a number of years …

Environmental Guidelines For New And Existing Piggeries, A Latto, John Noonan, R. J. Taylor

Bulletins 4000 -

These guidelines apply to the management of Western Australia piggeries in Western Australia, including intensive Growing pigs under intensive conditions where the and extensive operations, straw-based housing and animals spend their entire life cycle indoors, is an combinations of these (otherwise referred to as semi- important part of the Western Australian and intensive housing).

An Assessment Of The Efficacy Of Deep Drains Constructed In The Wheatbelt Of Western Australia Part 1 A Discussion On Drainage Implmentation In The Wheatbelt : A Case Study Review, Summary, Conclusions And Recommendations, N A. Coles, Richard J. George Dr, A D. Bathgate

Bulletins 4000 -

Australia has undertaken a strategic review of current and historical deep drainage projects. A 'rapid appraisal' methodology was utilised, based principally on existing hydrological investigations and interpretation and anecdotal evidence provided by landholders to clarify the role of drainage in managing water in dry land rural landscapes.

The objectives of this discussion paper are to:

1. Review the current status of groundwater drainage practice

2. Provide an assessment of deep drains in the landscape and

3. Propose recommendations on the development of drainage policy to enable the application of best management practice in groundwater drainage.

Practical Hints For The Layout And Construction Of 10,000 M3 Circular Dams, Terry Babbington, J S. Addison

Bulletins 4000 -

These notes and illustrations have been compiled to assist earthmovers in the construction of circular excavated earth tank dams, with pipe inlets. Construction techniques tend to evolve over time, so the methods described in this publication will not be definitive, but, they may improve efficiency of construction in the interim. Although the example used in these notes refers to 10,000 m3 dams, the construction techniques, using a bulldozer, described here equally apply to dams of any volume of similar design. Only dimensions will vary. earthmovers using a scarper together with a bulldozer should be able to extract useful information from …