by Ken Gargett

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced an irrigation scheme for farmers on the Murray River, which will allow them to leave their industry without necessarily walking off their land. Nearly 60% of the farmers in this region are grape growers.

The package will consist of an exit grant up to A$150,000 ($125,600), a further amount up to a maximum of $10,000 to dispose of vine, trees and infrastructure and a similar amount for re-training. The offer will apply only to those Riverland irrigators with 15 hectares or less and be available for the rest of the financial year. Rudd said “the objective is to help these small-block irrigators remain in their communities while getting out of the business of irrigation, and secondly, as a result, providing greater environmental flows for the Murray and to help therefore the Lower Lakes."

The estimated cost of the scheme is A$57.1m ($47.8m) and could improve the flow of the Murray by 48 gigalitres. One gigalitre equals 1,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The response to the scheme has been mixed with several farmers indicating that they believed the amount offered was far too low, while others felt that re-training would solve nothing.

Elsewhere, approximately 120 irrigators in McLaren Vale will be eligible for a newly introduced Federal subsidy which will see up to 800m litres of recycled water, from a local sewage treatment plant, made available each year. The project is estimated to cost A$3.5m. Local MP, Amanda Rishworth, said that the “funds will be available to cover the water licence fees for this charge for a period of six years, so both the connection and the licence fee will be subsidised by grants that will be available through the McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism Association."