DRY TIMES ARE REASONS FOR DAMS
After severe drought in the early 1900s, the government of the day built Burrinjuck Dam to supply water for the MIA in the Leeton/Griffith area.
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It was built with taxpayer money, for "Irrigation for food production and hydro electricity".
In 1948 the great Snowy Mountains scheme commenced.
Again the first priority was "Irrigation for food production and hydro electricity."
I began irrigation farming in 1951. In the drought years from 2000 to 2006, for the first time I had to watch my winter crops die and had no water for a summer crop.
In 2018/19 again there is no, or very little water allocations.
Most irrigation farmers have planted winter cereals. These crops would yield well, but need water within two weeks to reach maturity or they will die. There will be very few summer crops sown.
The majority of dry area crops in the district are on the brink of dying if they do not receive a good fall of rain within two weeks or so.
The majority of dry area crops north west of the Burley Griffin Way to the Queensland border, I am told, will have no winter crop harvest.
This appears to me to be the exact reason why those early governments build the dams.
However, instead of of saving these irrigation crops, water is flowing past the irrigation farms to flow into a lake 1,000 kilometres away, which evaporates more water in a year than the MIA uses.
Added to this, the MDBA uses the canal system to bypass the Barmah choke in the Murray River near Moama to send on down the river, while the surrounding Murray Valley farmers have nil allocation.
Where are today's politicians to ensure the peoples' food supply is maintained.
Joe Cudmore, Griffith
THERE CAN'T BE ONE WITHOUT OTHER
So let us start this story with two very common names, old Adam and Eve.
Husband and wife sitting on the front of their house having an evening rest and at one stage Eve, in a loving way opens a kind of discussion with her old husband and says "Adam you know with all we have gone through in our 80 years, we women should be very grateful that you men were never placed in the kitchen by the feminists from the start."
"What do you mean?" says Adam.
Well Eve replies "If this was the case, just think, we probably wouldn't have aeroplanes, hospitals, sports, washing machines, music, trains, cars, etc, etc."
At this stage Adam put his arm around Eve and says "my dear Eve, you are quite right on what you have said. But also most of all keep always in mind, no women also means no men. Do you remember often you used to get up in the middle of the night feeding and changing those beautiful babies? Not to mention those freezing winters where you would walk a kilometre with a bundle of children's clothes and mine, then cracking the ice on a fountain tub and start washing? Not to mention the sacrifice of the nine months."
By this time Eve got a little emotional and with trembling lips says "Adam, what if we say a prayer?"
So Adam, with a little tear at the back of his eye says "which one dear?"
Eve replies "Follow me. Father, thank you for the gift of unity between a man and a woman. Thank you for all these years that you have never allowed evil to grab hold of our unity, thank you for allowing us to forgive each other not seven times but 70 times times seven and last thank you for the great depth of these words. For better and for worst, for rich and for poor, in sickness and health, until death do us part."
May God bless you all.
Elio Cocilova, Griffith
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