Carlo has a plan to bring water to the Mallee

The Argus of September 2, 1902 interviewed Carlo about his proposal to irrigate around one million acres of Mallee land by using the water of Murray River.  I have transcribed it, below, or you can read here.  The interviewer describes Carlo as an enthusiast  who is once more breathing life into this almost dead project and Mr. Catani who, though an ltalian, has a marked capacity for expressing his views in clear and pregnant English. It's  a longish article, but well worth reading and shows Carlo's big picture vision, confidence in his own ability and professional role and the fact that he was not afraid to work on proposals not strictly related to his role as the Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department.

Was his proposal ever acted upon? No. Would it have been successful if implemented?  I cannot answer that.

NEGLECTED RICHES. MALLEE IRRIGATION. FLOODING LOW LEVELS.
MR. CATANI INTERVIEWED.

Since 1897 the authorities in Victoria have been considering schemes for watering the Mallee country from the bounteous River Murray, which encircles that arid territory in a magnificent sweep of wasted waters. The question has been reported on and considered. and nothing has been done, in fact the scheme has been for some time almost abandoned. New South Wales commenced to consider the same scheme with respect to its territory adjoining the Murray in the year 1880, and already it has two channels cut, and by the time the next flood waters come will be ready to water 200 miles of country. Look at the latest reports of the Public Works committee of New South Wales and you will see that a scheme has been completed, with the exception of the regulators, to connect the Murray at Tooleybuc with Tuppal Creek and the Edwards River; and another scheme to connect the Murray at Barham with the Wakool River is also under way.

We are highly progressive people - it would be treason to dispute that - but how much more progressive must the New South Wales people be? They did not commence to think about the thing till two years after it had been mooted in Victoria, and already extensive works have been carried out, and we have done nothing but consider, and, were it not for one or two enthusiasts would have dropped the matter altogether.

Yet, unless surface levels taken by trained surveyors are false as dicers' oaths and hard-headed engineers are wild dreamers, we could water and irrigate an immense quantity of land, which is now almost unproductive at a cost comparatively trifling whilst no one who depends upon the River Murray for navigation or any other purposes would be one penny the worse, and, in some respects would be much better off.

Mallee dust storm, Manangatang, 1920.

Would Mallee dust storms have been a thing of the past if Carlo's scheme was implemented? Remember the one that hit Melbourne on Tuesday, February 8, 1983, the day before the tragic Ash Wednesday bushfires? 

Museums Victoria https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/772425

"Look here," says Mr. C. Catani, engineer for roads and bridges in the Public Works department. "Look here. Here is a plan which makes the scheme almost brutally clear." Then he displays a plan which looks exactly like one of those maps or plans which financiers publish to show the rise and fall of prices of an article over a series of years, so that the course of the market may be seen at a glance. "This plan," he continued, "shows the ridges and depressions over a wide space of the Mallee country. The levels have all been accurately taken by the surveyors of the Lands department, who have walked over country surveying it into blocks. Now this horizontal line shows the level of the Murray at the height of the proposed off-take - 4ft above summer level. You an see that that line is not only above all the depressions in this stretch of country, but it is actually considerably above all the ridges. It is no use saying that the water will not go through this country, for if it can find no way round the ridges it will flow over them "

Mr. Catani is the enthusiast  who is once more breathing life into this almost dead project. He has a long and honourable career in the Public Works department, and he is impelled merely by a sense of duty to ventilate the matter. It belongs properly to the Water Supply department, but Mr. Catani has facts in his possession which he thinks should be made known, and being fortified by the strong support of Mr. Williamson Wallace, the director of agriculture, he is doing all he can to bring it once more into into region of what is immediately practicable. Mr. W. Davidson inspector-general of public works, takes no responsibility for what Mr. Catani, is doing, but he states that he has gone carefully into the facts and figures submitted by that officer, and believes that he has made out a strong case.

"The policy I advocate," says Mr. Catani who, though an ltalian, has a marked capacity for expressing his views in clear and pregnant English - " the policy I advocate is water and no channels, against the disastrous policy of channels and no water."

"My scheme," he continues," is to irrigate for cultivation purposes the whole of the northern Mallee which still belongs to the Crown. To begin with, I suggest that the area bounded on the north by the Murray, on the south of the high land in the parallel of Lake Tyrrell, on the east by the Murray, and on the west by the Mildura railway line, be operated upon. This area is about 50 miles wide east and west, and 30 miles deep north and south. It contains about 1,500 square miles or 1,000,000 acres,
of Crown land."  [Lake Tyrrell is near Sea Lake - so the southern border is essentially Sea Lake to Ultima to Lake Boga to the border/ Murray River. Area would include the euphonicly named towns of  Manangatang, Chillingollah, Chinapook. Ouyen would be on the western border, Swan Hill on the eastern border]

Mary, Annie and Norrie Ryan at their farm in Chinkapook in 1926.
Photographer: Mrs Ryan. 

Would the farm have been a green oasis if Carlo's scheme was implemented? 

Image: Museums Victoria https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/766067

How do you get the water into that area? "By a cutting about five miles long, and on an average 12ft. deep"

And the cost? "That would be about £38,000. My first estimate was £15,000,but after consulting with Mr. Wallace as to the necessity of getting the water onto the land in early winter, and quickly, I found it necessary to increase the width of the inlet from 24ft wide to 90ft wide. The cost is doubled but the capacity of the channel is trebled."

The Railways Standing Committee reported doubtfully of your scheme? "Yes; but it is evident from their report that they did not understand it. They speak of it as a scheme to cut a channel into the centre of the northern Mallee, whereas my proposed cutting is only five miles long. After that the water finds its way through the natural depressions."

Mr. Stuart Murray, engineer-in-chief of water supply gave evidence criticising the scheme did he not? "I think the committee must have misunderstood his evidence also, for it makes him state that in a minimum year there would be 490 millions of cubic feet of water short of the 1,500 million cubic feet required for the scheme. Now, the gaugings taken at Albury, at Echuca, and at Mildura during 27 years show that not merely is the 1,500 million cubic feet available in a minimum year, but actually 80 times that amount is running to waste, and no less than 300 times that amount in a maximum
year."

"The railway committee," continued Mr. Catani, "partially condemned the scheme on the evidence that in a minimum year the supply would be 490 million cubic feet short, and there was no natural depression sufficient to store that quantity. They wanted, in fact, to store a paltry 490 million cubic feet of water from one year to another, when 400 times that quantity is yearly going to waste into the sea.

When Mr. Catani takes you into figures and displays his tables, the unmathematical brain simply reels amongst the billions. It would seem as if the ocean would have to be drained to supply the Mallee with an additional 6in. of water per annum. But if the figures as to demand are great, the figures as to supply are prodigious. The gist of them is this, that one-eighteenth of the annual discharge at Echuca in a minimum year would give all that is required, or 1-57th of a maximum year.

So, not in the least discouraged by the doubts of the Railway Standing Committee, Mr. Catani boldly asserts that a magnificent and extensive scheme of cheap irrigation is being neglected.

Then, what do you want now, Mr. Catani? "I want the Government first of all to to fill in some of the blanks in the surveys which were made for other purposes. Those will give data as to the levels between the lines of levels which we now have. The leases of these Mallee blocks, which will be affected fall in in 1903. We ought to know what is going to be done by that time, for the Government will then have an absolutely free hand with all this land. It can turn the water where it likes without compensation to anybody, and it can provide for its settlement on much more profitable basis that at present."

A few words with Mr. Wallace, the director of agriculture show that he is entirely in accord with the scheme, and a strong believer in its practicability. In the "Journal of the Department of Agriculture" he published a most interesting article, comparing what is done in Egypt with what is, in his opinion, possible in the Mallee, and this he has republished in a pamphlet. Mr. Catani is prepared to bring the water cheaply to the land, and Mr. Wallace to show how best to apply it when it is there. To say the least of it, a case has most certainly been made out for immediate further inquiry.

If you are interested in reading Mr Wallace's article of 'what is done in Egypt which would be possible in the Mallee', in the Journal of the Department of Agriculture, then it is on-line on the State Library of Victoria website - here.  It is in Volume 1, No. 7 from 1902 - his article starts on page 643 - but the section on irrigation is on page 651 to 657.