School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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Type: Masters Research thesis × Subject: Victoria × Start date: 2000 × End date: 2020 × Author: Howes, Hilary Susan ×

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    From commission to community: a history of salinity management in the Goulburn Valley, 1886-2007
    Howes, Hilary Susan ( 2007)
    This thesis investigates the evolution of government and public roles in salinity management within the Goulburn Valley, an important agricultural region of north-central Victoria. I argue that approaches to salinity management in the Goulburn Valley have altered over time to reflect variations in the connection between government and local communities. From 1905, the Victorian Government (as represented through its administrative body for water resources, the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC)) was led by a combination of developmentalist ideology and financial caution to install throughout north-central Victoria the fatal combination of extensive irrigation systems without adequate drainage. Despite early evidence of salinity problems resulting from their actions, the SRWSC did not experience a serious challenge to its institutionalised pattern of top-down advice and authority until the 1970s, when proposals for large-scale evaporative disposal schemes for salinity management met with angry responses from the farming community. Following an examination of community responses to two of the most controversial of these, the Lake Tyrrell and Mineral Reserve Basins salinity management schemes, I re-evaluate the subsequent Girgarre salinity control project in its historical context as a turning-point in government attitudes to community consultation. Through a close analysis of key policy documents, I then show how salinity management in the Goulburn Valley has developed since Girgarre to incorporate increasing levels of community participation, and proceed to examine the Australian Landcare movement as an effective, though flawed, system for community-based natural resource management. The thesis concludes with an assessment of the Goulburn Valley’s current situation, and emphasises very strongly the need for genuine community participation to ensure effective salinity management.