National Museum of Australia

Industry

Participants in the slideshow examine how their regions are an essential source of material for a number of important industries. Local flora and fauna, local climate and geography often shape the livelihood of communities.

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Vines

The challenge now is to keep the redgums on the Angas Bremer floodplain healthy and regenerating. More information about projects in which the Angas Bremer Water Management Committee are involved can be viewed at www.angasbremerwater.org.au

Vineyard redgums, Kerri (Goolwa)

Vineyard with redgums

This practice has been going on since the 1880s and it looks like it's working! Unlike most gums in the River Murray system, red gums on the Angas Bremer floodplain are a picture of health, with 95 per cent of trees along the channels classified as 'healthy' in the May 2005 survey. In contrast, only 25 per cent of red gums along the Murray River were considered 'healthy' in the survey conducted by the Murray Darling Basin Commission in early 2004.

The committee, Kerri (Goolwa)

Members of Angas Bremer Water Management Committee (ABWMC)

The Angas Bremer Water Management Committee is a publically elected committee of volunteer irrigators formed in 1991 to represent about 160 irrigators in the Langhorne Creek area. These irrigators use a combination of Murray River water drawn from Lake Alexandrina, watercourse water drawn from the ephemeral Angas and Bremer Rivers, and groundwater drawn from the freshwater lens that has formed under the Angas floodplain. The main crops are vines, lucerne, olives, turf and potatoes.

Pump sheds, Kerri (Goolwa)

Pump sheds on edge of Lake Alexandrina

Pump sheds like this are found at many places around the lake. The Angas Bremer Water Management Committee are an extremely pro active group who have drafted water management policies and best practice management guidelines that are designed to manage the risks they have identified, namely reduced river flows, increasing lake water salinity levels, and the potential for rising water tables. Rare native fish are found in these channels because the pumps provide 'environmental flows' and the right conditions for survival.

Reeds, Kerri (Goolwa)

Reeds

Cattle grazing on the lake shore has been identified by the local community as a major risk to water quality and biodiversity. Best Management Practice guidelines will be developed to encourage reed growth to reduce bank slumping and improve nesting sites for waterbirds, particularly black swans.

Goolwa Barrage, Cassie (Goolwa)

A historical photo of men working on the Goolwa Barrage in the 1920's

Men working on the Goolwa Barrage c. 1920s

Before the barrages were built there were plenty of mulloway, but trading at the Goolwa Wharf ceased not long after the end of the Second World War. Val's husband worked on the barrages around the Goolwa district before the war.

Val remembers a row of small huts along the road near the Goolwa Barrage which were accommodation for married barrage workers only. These huts had names such as Hot as Zell, Windy as Zell, Sandy as Zell and so on. By the late 1970s only one of these huts remained and today there is no sign that they even existed.

Industry

Industry

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Vines in May, Kerri (Goolwa)

Vineyard redgums, Kerri (Goolwa)

The committee, Kerri (Goolwa)

Pump sheds, Kerri (Goolwa)

Reeds, Kerri (Goolwa)

Goolwa Barrage, Cassie (Goolwa)