At Langhorne Creek, the use of electric pumps to extract
groundwater for irrigation began in 1950 when electricity first became
available in the paddocks of the Angas Bremer district. By 1970 well water
levels were falling and salinity of irrigation water was rising. This was
because the volume of groundwater being extracted had increased to
approximately four times the volume of water recharged to the aquifer each
year.
In
1979 the Angas Bremer Water Resources Advisory Committee (ABWRAC) was formed to
provide advice to the responsible SA Government Minister on how best to manage
the Angas Bremer water resources.
In 1980 the Angas Bremer groundwater resource was proclaimed
so that further expansion in its use was stopped and management of the resource
became controlled by legislation. By 1987 the first Angas Bremer Water
Management Plan (ABWMP) was adopted and water meters were installed on all
bores.
The innovative policies in the ABWMP, and the huge increases
in the farmgate prices of winegrapes, motivated many growers to exchange
groundwater licences for river Murray licences. Many privately owned pipelines
were installed beside the roads from lake Alexandrina . In 1995, 42 growers
joined forces to form the Langhorne Creek Water Company and to design, finance
and build their state-of-the-art community pipeline scheme.
In 1997 the ABWRAC introduced Irrigation
Annual Reporting as a framework for self-education by irrigators.
Irrigation Annual Reporting has involved every irrigator in improving the
management of the local water resource.
In 1997 the ABWRAC was disbanded after the
River Murray Catchment Water Management Board was formed under the new Water
Resources Act 1997. At the insistence of the Angas Bremer community,
the committee was reformed as the Angas Bremer Water Management Committee
(ABWMC).
In
2000 the ABWMC introduced the Angas Bremer Irrigators Code of
Practice.
In 2001 the fourth, Angas Bremer, 5-year groundwater
management plan (the Water Allocation Plan for the Angas Bremer Prescribed
Wells Area) was adopted by the Minister.
For more than 20 years the ABWMC has been committed to
increasing the knowledge of all growers and to improving the long-term
management of water in their district.
It has provided courageous local leadership and involved all
the local growers in building practical, common-sense strategies for the
benefit of those growers.
The ABWMC has sought, received and valued strong technical
support from SA government agencies.
It has achieved the real involvement and strong support of the
community by acting with integrity, communicating with the community and by
strenuously defending the confidentiality of every item of data provided by
individual growers.
Further reading:
Waterhouse Report and Associated Figures
Other Documents
Angas Bremer Regional History
(182Kb)
(269Kb)
Recovering degraded groundwater in the Angas-Bremer basin through community action
(588Kb)
Groundwater resource management in the Angas-Bremer irrigation area of South Australia
(570Kb)
