Dealing with salinity in Wheatbelt Valleys - Department of Water

services. The Government responded with
extensive borrowing to fund necessary capital
works, most notably the expansion of the very
small existing railway network, the building of
Fremantle Harbour and the development of the
Frost and Burnside
Goldfields Water Supply Scheme (properly called
the ‘Coolgardie Goldfields Water Scheme’). The
level of borrowing was criticised by many, who felt
that the State was exceeding its ability to service
its commitments (Crowley 2000).
Table 1: Change in selected statistics – Western Australia (from Appleyard 1981; Snooks 1981)
Year Population
Capital
investment in
railways ($)
Public capital
formation for
agriculture ($)
Gold exports
($)
Wheat
exports
($)
1880 29,561 6,000 Nil Nil Nil
1890 48,502 15,000 Nil 173,328 Nil
1900 179,967 1,100,000 Nil 11,099,158 360
1910 276,832 2,138,000 480,000 9,137,736 406,326
An important reason for quickly equipping the
State with the necessary infrastructure was to
encourage this vastly increased population to stay
in the State. At first this meant providing services
to the Goldfields. However, after gold production
peaked in 1903 and began to decline, the
imperative shifted to attracting ex-goldminers to
take up farming in the Wheatbelt, by providing a
range of incentives. Building up agriculture to
diversify the economy was the goal. The
wheatbelt valleys with their modest but relatively
sure rainfall, deep loamy soils and relatively easily
cleared woodlands was to be the place, in the
minds of the politicians, where the goal would be
achieved.
The key instrument was the Homestead Act 1893,
consolidated into the Land Act 1898. The
approach, modelled on that used in the US to
encourage settlement, allowed settlers to obtain
small, but nominally free blocks, provided they
showed proof of residence and commitment to
develop the block for farming (Powell 1998).
Governments borrowed funds to survey the land
into blocks, with land classed on the basis of its
Year
vegetation as either ‘first class’, ‘second class’ or
‘third class’ land. The next stage was to finance
families into farming – with funding support
through the State’s Agricultural Bank (now after a
number of metamorphoses known as BankWest)
provided to get the new landholder through the
period of land clearing to the stage when crops
would return income. Block sizes varied, but
were normally a minimum of 500 acres granted,
with most in the drier areas around 1,000 acres.
All blocks needed to include substantial areas of
‘first class’ land (Burvill 1979b).
Results came quickly as shown in Tables 1 and 2.
From exporting no wheat at all in 1890, the State
grew to be a substantial exporter as early as 1910.
Thereafter production grew very rapidly, although
labour shortages during World War I slowed the
rate of increase. The first class land – the open
woodlands of the wheatbelt valleys – were
relatively easy to clear (by axe at about 4 to
5 acres a week per man), and enterprising people
quickly developed skills in clearing, burning, raking
and rolling to hasten the process of establishment.
Table 2: Expansion in grain production 1890-1930 (Source: Burvill 1979b, p.43)
Area of land cleared
(m Ha)
Area of land seeded
for grain (m Ha)
Wheat Production
(m tonnes)
1890 0.05 0.014 0.013
1900 0.49 0.03 0.021
1910 2.1 0.24 0.16
1915 n.a. 0.70 0.50
1920 3.1 0.52 0.33
1930 5.6 1.60 1.46
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