They so often exist in tension with each other, but a Trangie farmer has created a system which benefits both crops and the environment. 

Tony Quigley's leadership in developing the highly efficient, spectacularly clever Trangie-Nevertire Irrigation Scheme has caught the attention of the leaders of the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), who invited him to talk to industry leaders from all over Australia about the scheme at the River Reflections conference in Narrabri. 

"I talked about the modernisation of the Trangie-Nevertire Irrigation Scheme and the increased water efficiency that has achieved, the water savings that meant water had gone back to the Commonwealth - water that they have now gone on to use in the Macquarie Valley," Quigley told the Western Plains App.



Quigley told the guests how the modernisation of the irrigation infrastructure of the Trangie-Nevertire Co-operative Ltd, both off-farm and on-farm, has seen channel conveyance losses reduce from as high as 50% to 7% through loss of seepage, better-targeted irrigation, upgrading equipment and overall more efficient use of water. 

The Trangie-Nevertire Co-operative Limited is a member-owned Irrigation Scheme that pumps out of the Macquarie River.

The project was largely driven by Quigley, who is their treasurer, and Chairman James Winter. 

"It was part of the national water initiative that came out some years ago to modernize irrigation system around the basin and share the water savings 50/50 with the Commonwealth and those private irrigation schemes," Quigley explained. 

ABOVE: Tony Quigley. Image: Cotton Australia. 

A pipeline rather than groundwater now services all of their members. 

The lining of 138 km of the rebuilt main channel with rubber led has led to massive reduction in seepage losses. 

"The on-farm infrastructure upgrades on the remaining member farms have led to both water savings and yield increases on both summer and winter crops grown," he said 

 "People at the conference were quite amazed; they hadn't heard of what we had done." 

This project has also been recognised at the World Irrigation Forum and International Executive Council held in Bali where it received an ICID Watsave Innovative Water Management Award. 

Quigley told the Conference the modernization project involved many elements including: 

• Reduction in the earthen channel system from 240 km down to 138 km. 
• Rebuilding that 138 km with a rubber lining and rubber membrane. 
• Constructing a complete Rubicon water gate system and all enclosed within electric exclusion fencing and replacing traditional furrow surface irrigation with overhead sprinkler center pivot. 

Two other irrigation systems in the lower Western Plains have also developed similar schemes: Narromine Water Management and the Tenandra Irrigation Scheme in Warren. 

Quigley said the River Reflections conference, which included talks by international speakers, heads of public service departments, academics, first nations leaders, farmers, and Narrabri's mayor showed him the importance of having the Murray Darling Basin Plan. 

"Having a Basin Plan shows we have achieved something that not too many other places around the world have done. We are further ahead than most places in the world in terms of river management and environmental protection." 

ABOVE: Trangie-Nevertire Co-operative Limited 

The Federal Government and several State Governments agreed on the first over a decade ago, with the Basin Plan being passed into law in November 2012. It is considered a significant milestone in Australian water reform. The Basin Plan limits the amount of water farmers can extract. The MDBA and Governments will develop a new plan to be implemented in 2026. 

He said they had two speakers from the USA water resource experts - Professor Leroy Hoff and Doctor Anne Castle, from Colorado which has a river system comparable to the Murrary-Darling Basin.

"There are no environmental flows into the system because they are all irrigated without restriction. Their lakes are dramatically shrinking, So they were saying, 'it's great that you have a plan'." 

The conference also saw MDBA head Sir Angus Houston released the roadmap to the next Murrary-Darling Basin Plan.