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The

Challenge of Landscape

 

THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRACTICE
OF KEYLINE

 

by P. A. YEOMANS

 

 

PUBLISHED BY
KEYLINE PUBLISHING PTY. LIMITED
117 PITT STREET
SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

 

 

THIS BOOK IS WHOLLY SET UP AND PRINTED IN AUSTRALIA
By WAITE & BULL PTY. LIMITED, 486 ELIZABETH ST., SYDNEY.
REGISTERED AT THE GENERAL POST OFFICE, SYDNEY, FOR
TRANSMISSION THROUGH THE POST AS A BOOK.

1958

COPYRIGHT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.


THIS BOOK IS PRESENTED AT SOIL AND HEALTH LIBRARY
WITH THE SPECIFIC AND DIRECT PERMISSION
OF ALLAN YEOMANS

 

 

DEDICATION

THIS BOOK is dedicated to the Trustees of the Keyline (Research) Foundation inappreciation of their willing co-operation and valuable support in the cause of Keyline.

The Trustees of the Foundation are:

SIR C. STANTON HicKs (Vice-President)
D. R. MCCAUGHEY (Vice-President)
C. R. McKERIHAN (Treasurer)
PROFESSOR J. R. A. MCMILLAN
DR. G. B. S. FALKINER
JOHN DARLING
MY WIFE AND MYSELF

On the formation of the Foundation I was appointed President, and Harold N. Sarinaaccepted the position of Honorary Secretary.

The real beginning of the work which led to Keyline was in 1944, our first fullyear on "Yobarnie", when my brother-in-law manager lost his life in thebush fire. So for my wife the early association with the whole project was one ofdeep bereavement, and but for her willingness to continue then, Keyline would nothave originated.

*   *   *

SIR C. STANTON HICKS is Professor of Human Physiology and Pharmacology at theUniversity of Adelaide; is widely known in England, the United States of America,as well as in Australasia for his interests in land development. He founded the AustralianCatering Corps in the Second World War and is Scientific Food Consultant to the AustralianArmy. in 1950 Sir Stanton was invited to deliver the Sanderson-Wells lecture at theUniversity of London ("Food and Folly"). This year (1958) Sir Stanton hasreceived the honour of an invitation to deliver in London the Sir Albert Howard MemorialLecture.

D. R. MCCAUGHEY, C.M.G., of Borombola Park BeefShorthorn Stud, Wagga (N.S.W.),and Coonong Merino Stud, Narrandera (N.S. W.), is also a director of land and woolcompanies. The name McCaughey has been famous for generations in Australian pastoralhistory.

C. R. McKERIHAN, C.B.E., is President of the Rural Bank of N.S. W., a positionhe has occupied for nearly 25 years. He has served on numerous committees and isknown Australia-wide for the part he has played in charitable and philanthropic organisations,particularly his administration of the Australian Comforts Fund during the war. Priorto and during the war, he was Chairman of the Rural Advisory Council. Many Australianshave been aided by his realistic summing-up of national problems.

PROFESSOR J. R. A. MCMILLAN is Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the Universityof Sydney. He was Plant Breeder at the Queensland Agricultural College and Lecturer,Faculty of Agriculture, University of Queensland. He has served with the C.S.I.R.0.as Principal Geneticist and was President of the Royal Society of Australia from1941 to 1943.

DR. G. B. S. FALKINER'S name is inevitably coupled with his famous Merino Stud,"Haddon Rig", but also has other extensive properties, is Vice-Presidentof the N.S. W. Sheep Breeders' Association, a member of the Council of the N.S. W.Bush Nursing Association, and a Director of several industrial companies. He is Chairmanof the Industrial Committee of the Nuclear Research Foundation and was honoured recentlyby the University of Sydney for his work for this Foundation, on which he is alsoa Governor.

JOHN DARLING, another name famous in Australian national development, is a directorof John Darling & Sons, flour milling firm founded originally by his great-grandfather.With his own grazing properties he maintains the same strong interest in rural mattersas his father, who was a founder of the Waite Institute of South Australia.

H. N. SARINA, the Honorary Secretary of the Foundation, is widely known all overthe Commonwealth for his interest in live stock and agricultural pursuits.

Each Trustee of the Foundation has expressed his views in support of the Keylineconcept, but I may quote John Darling: "My father often said that Australiahad everything except a good rainfall, and what the country needed was a high rangeof mountains down the centre of the continent, so that we would get the rain we needed.I regard Keyline as that range of mountains."

 

CONTENTS

Homage to P.A. Yeomans by Allan Yeomans

FOREWORD

PART ONE

I Vision Ahead

II The Aims of Keyline

III Soil, its Life and its Climate

IV The Keyline Scale of Permanence

FACTORS OF THE KEYLINE SCALE

V Climate

VI Land Shape

VII Water Supply

VIII Farm Roads

IX Trees

X Farm Buildings

XI Subdivision

XII Soil

 

PART TWO

XIII The Keyline (Research) Foundation

XIV Unfolding the Plan

XV Completing the Landscape

XVI Fertilisers. and Fertility

XVII Why Soil Conservation?

 

PART THREE

XVIII Design and Construction of a Farm Dam

XIX Drains and Irrigation

XX The Choice of Farm Dam Designs

XXI Rewards of the Balanced Landscape

With twenty-one diagrams throughout the text

Addendum by Allan Yeomans

 

PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES*

THE CHALLENGE OF LANDSCAPE

THE DEVELOPMENT AND PRACTICE OF KEYLINE
PICTORIAL STORY


*NOTE FROM SOIL AND HEALTH LIBRARY:
These very interesting plates open in "new windows."
They are rather substantial downloads; most are well worth viewing.

The Lemon-scented Gums of "Yobarnie" 1

Landscapes on "Nevallan" 2
Landscape on "Nevallan" and "Yobarnie" 3

Water Storage in Farm Dams 4, 5

Agricultural Water Control 6

A Study of Climatic Influence 7

Keyline-pattern Flow Irrigation 8

Irrigated Hill Country and Pasture Growth 9

The Spillway of a Large Farm Dam 10

The Drains of Keyline 11

Dam Troubles and Studies 12

Dam Troubles and Studies 13

The Calculated Risk 14

A Distinguished Visitor 15

People and Keyline 16

Farm Walks of "Nevallan" 17

Reservoir Under Construction 18

The Newly-completed Reservoir 19

Two Stories Illustrated 20

Cultivation and Implements 21

Installing the Lockpipe System 22

Keyline Control of Water 23

"Kencarley" Scenes 24

The Changing Landscape 25

The "Campbelltown Place" 26

A Keyline Experiment 27

"Pakby", Bathurst 28

Water Control and Soil Erosion 29

Soil, the Foundation of Landscape 30

Trees and the Permanent Landscape 31

The New "Nevallan" 32

 

*   *   *

These 32 Plates contain 99 Photographs.

Except where otherwise acknowledged, all photographs were taken by the author and are selected from his property records to tell pictorially the connected story of the Development and Practice of Keyline.