Mr Martelli's progress report on Irrigation, the general features of which we have already announced, is now in the hands of the Printer. The following memoranda on the same subject, as far as relates to the Cumberland, were prepared by Mr H. M. Hull in the year 1857, and presented to the Royal Society at the instance of Sir Henry Young. As Mr Hull and Mr Martelli have both travelled over nearly the same ground, it will be interesting to compare the two reports and note the coincidences between them. Mr Hull's paper, dated four years back, is as follows:
Report by Hugh Hull Esq., J.P. on present Irrigation in County of Cumberland. Presented to the Royal Society by Sir Henry Young, 15th July, 1857.
Agreeably to His Excellency's wish that I should "give him a statement of what has been done up to this time in the way of Irrigation in the County of Cumberland, and with what results; and also state what are the capabilities of the District for systematic Irrigation," I beg to report:-
1. That Irrigation has during the last 15 or 16 years been employed in this District for the purpose of improving the little valleys (or bottoms as they are locally called) on each bank of the Clyde, and also on the eastern side of the Ouse River, and on the Shannon River; but the works have, with one or two exceptions, been of an inexpensive nature, and not extensive in their operations. But the result has been in all cases so satisfactory that it is astonishing these works have not been carried to a much greater extent. Two or three reasons may be assigned for this: first, the uncertainty of a Summer supply of the water in the Clyde, owing to the wilful destruction of the dam at Lake Crescent, and the refusal of the owner of the adjacent land to permit its re-erection. Second, the objection of certain proprietors to allow cuttings to be made through their lands to convey water by which they would not be benefited, and thirdly, by the want of an energetic and speculative spirit on the part of proprietors to expend capital in works the benefits of which might not repay them for some years, or lastly, the want of capital to do works which would be so valuable to the Colony.
2. I have explored the banks of the Clyde for 25 miles - those of the River Ouse for 20 miles; the Dee for about 10 miles, and those of the Shannon with its rocky bed for 15 miles. I have also explored the Exe Rivulet and the Jordan River; and after my ride of nearly 200 miles, I am of opinion (although not a surveyor) that 20,000 acres of land on their several banks may be easily irrigated, if good Heads of Water can be secured during the summer. I have conversed with nearly all the large settlers in the country, and from their opinions I gather what I now say, - that, by damming lakes Crescent and Sorell (both of which lakes I have just visited,) a very large head of water can be secured ; (the expense estimated by an experienced gentleman at £80 only). Those two lakes contain, it is estimated, 24 square miles of water; if raised three feet this would give 72 millions of square yards of water, or in round numbers 4,000,000 gallons a day available, every drop of it, for Irrigation purposes, and then with sufficient fall to drive the two mills at Bothwell and the mill at Hamilton. The River Clyde can, without much expense, be led into the Exe Rivulet, which falls into the Jordan, and thus would give the means of irrigating the extensive valley of Cross Marsh and Bagdad Plains. To keep up the supply of the Clyde, the Shannon can, by a five-mile cutting, be brought into Mount Pleasant Valley, of 1,000 acres, on to Weasel's Plains, 2,000 acres, and then to the Clyde. The Shannon contains three times as much water as the Clyde, and takes its rise in the Great Lake, which is about 60 miles in circumference, and the mouth of which, being rocky, can easily be dammed. A dam at Halfmoon Marsh near Burford village, on the Clyde, would enable us to take the water out on each side, and command a very large extent of country all available for Irrigation. At Dennistoun nearly 2,000 acres of bush pasture are now roughly irrigated at a comparatively trifling expense. The soil is sandy, and is much benefited; more so than clayey soils, on which where irrigated, rushes grow, although richly intermingled with white clover, the seeds of which are borne into every corner by the flowing water. If the water be taken out at Halfmoon Marsh it could be carried above Dennistoun House, round by Fordell, Thorpe Mill, Logan, and then into Bothwell at a high elevation, and on the other side of the Clyde, it would command Blair, Cluny, Ratho, and other extensive farms with their vallies.
3. As to the value of Irrigated Land, I gather that where one acre of bush pasture will feed a sheep per annum, one acre of irrigated land will feed five. If the land had been ploughed and sown with English grasses, it is worth, when irrigated, from 20 to 30 acres of dry land. The paddocks at Meadsfield and Sherwood - evergreen, and nearly knee deep in clover - speak volumes for the value of irrigation; while the prices which the Meadsfield wethers and the Sherwood butter command, fully compensate the spirited owners of those properties for their outlay.
4. Shannon - At Hunterston, on the Shannon, 500 acres are irrigated at a trifling annual expense; and by a cutting of about 5 miles to Mount Pleasant, at a cost of about 20s a rod, or £300 a mile, the water could be conveyed to Mount Pleasant and on to the Clyde. Messrs Howell irrigate some paddocks from the Shannon…
I may be allowed to remark that the benefits proposed to be secured to the 2600 inhabitants of the County of Cumberland by the bill now before Parliament for securing the sources of the Clyde, might be greatly extended by permitting such dams to be erected at Lakes Sorell and Crescent, and also along the Clyde; it would place at the disposal of the settlers a good head of water for Irrigation purposes, the distribution of which might fairly be left in the hands of Trustees residing in Bothwell and Hamilton, and the works themselves protected by a resident overseer. £10,000 raised by debentures expended in these works on the Clyde, the Ouse and the Shannon would, were the lands benefited assessed at a low rate, not only be repaid in a few years, both interest and capital, but the results which would soon be evident to the Hobart Town market would lead to the rapid progression of the district, and to the extension of summer sheep runs far away beyond the Great Lake and Lake St. Clair, towards the V.D.L. Company's settlements on the Surrey and Hampshire Hills; - the half million of sheep now depastured in the district would be fattened, and the Victorian market for coarse mutton superseded. The Irrigation rate might be collected by the police or municipal authority, in the same way as the road assessments, and any local repairs be done under the same authority.
I regret that I cannot spare time to go more fully into this important subject, but on looking at the map His Excellency will see that it is to the county under my care that the colony will have to look, not only for a large portion of its annual land revenue, but also from its great advantages of lakes and rivers and plains, as the great field of future Irrigation, and for its supply of meat, should the Victorian market fail.
Respectfully submitted by HUGH M. HULL.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8796008