Almanac Life: Dad, the Drought and the Dried-Up Dam

 

 

 

It was the drought of 1967. On the Heytesbury Settlement, the many dairy farmers could not sustain a normal farm life.  They had to find alternative work, as the dairy cattle had been affected badly with their milk production.

 

My father found paid work with the local shire with road maintenance and through the week would go out and work a few hours each day at this.

 

Work had to continue on the farm as well. Although the cows were not very productive, they still had to be milked twice a day.   Due to the lack of pasture, the amount of hay fed out was a lot more than in previous years.  This put a strain on the hay supplies, and into the future it would be hard to replace because of the lack of green pastures for future hay making.

 

On top of the problems with the lack of hay and pastures, there was an increase demand on water supplies.  Our farm, like others, relied on man-made dams.  These were drying up at a frightening rate. The dams were all fenced off from the cattle to prevent the cattle from bogging up the dam and also polluting it.  During the drought, the troughs spread around the farm were often empty, because the pipes from the dams would become often no longer submerged in the dams.  The drinking troughs relied on gravity for the water to siphon from the dams to the troughs.  Very little water in the dams meant the troughs were often empty.

 

Solutions to maintain the cattle’s health and well-being during this period were continually explored.

 

The questionable practice of water diviners were employed in desperation by many farmers, including my father. Sometimes it was the bloody obvious, when a diviner would predict that water was present where there was a dried up swampy area at geographical low spot on our farm.

 

Dad took the advice of such a diviner, and hired a drill which he attached to the farm tractor.

 

One hole drillled and the inspection for sign of water.   Yes, it was there but the rate that the drill hole filled with water was fairly slow.

 

Let’s drill another hole. The second hole proved to be very productive, and filled quickly. The water was so plentiful, that a pump could be employed to fill neighbouring troughs close by.  There  seemed no problem with this well.

 

If the second well was this productive why not try for other locations close by.  A third and forth hole were drilled but did not produce the amount of water as the second hole.

 

Dad was elated, so much so that he even offered our neighbour, Brian, the fruits of the second well.  Just put  a pipe through  the boundary, and you can have as much water as you like for your animals.

 

Things were really looking  positive.  This was a solution that would retard the problems of the drought.  The water was a little brackish but still very drinkable for the cattle.

 

Back to the daily running of the farm, and the twice a day milking of the cows.   The dairy and house accessed water from a dam about 300 metres down a slope from the dairy.   (The house dam.)   This was pumped via a windmill to a couple of holding tanks for the house and dairy.  The windmill needed to be switched on and off manually,  to avoid the house and dairy tanks overflowing.

 

Some time later, probably the next day, one of the children went down to turn the windmill on or off.  They returned with some startling news.   The amount of water in the house dam had rapidly declined in the last 24 hours.   The answer to the disappearance of water became very obvious.  The four freshly dug wells another 300 metres down from the dam were the culprits, and unbeknownst to Dad, were linked via an underground limestone seam to the dam. Undisturbed the dam remained very viable for our needs around the house and dairy. Once the wells were opened, the water could flow reasonably freely along this seam.  The second well must have been right in the ‘correct’ location.

 

Outside the immediate family, our neighbour, Brian, was the first to hear the news.   Dad had gone to Brian’s place with his head in his hands, moaning “What have I done? What have I done!”

 

Brian had thoughts of  a tragic accident at the Kluzek household. Even the thoughts of death entered Brian’s thoughts.

 

Finally Dad explained what had happened, and things did not seem as grim and tragic as Dad had conveyed.

 

How to fix the problem?  Filling in the holes with soil was not the solution.  It would just create a lot of mud.   Someone suggested that concreting the holes was the solution, but the cement would have to be dusted down with water before applying to the holes, as the dry cement would wash out without turning the mixture into concrete.  So wheelbarrow loads of semi-damp concrete were made up and then the holes were filled in with this mixture. It was still questionable if this would be the solution to the leaking dam.

 

Over the next few days the concrete was inspected to see if it was hardening.  It was, to the relief of my father, and all the family.  The house dam seemed to cease  its rapid decline in water volume. The wells had had a very short life.

 

The drought broke in 1968, much to the relief of the farmers on the settlement.

 

But the memory remains of the four notorious wells in the middle of the farm at 101 Guys Road, Cooriemungle.

 

More from Stan Kluzek Here.

 

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