Avon River Management

The Avon River (Goguljar Bilya to the Ballardong Noongar People) has had some really poor management decisions made by governments in the past with the Avon River Training Scheme (RTS) a prime example. Now, with the economy more focused on development, the river is under extreme pressure.

In 2004 the Swan River was declared Western Australia’s first official heritage icon. It has since enjoyed millions of dollars in funding to ensure that this icon is managed in a sustainable manner, to be treasured and enjoyed.

But not so with its upper reaches – the Avon River. Although younger in name (by maybe five years) it is very much more mature by tens of millions of years.

Both the Swan and Avon Rivers are quite distinctly the same river. Exploration during the founding of the Swan River Colony had barely begun when the different names were applied. It is now evident that different management practices are also being applied because of the magnitude of the issues that have been created since settlement.

The formation of ARMA in 1993 gave some hope. Fired up at the beginning (with an excellent and innovative Executive Officer), it did not address the issues in the long term. The appointments to ARMA were politically motivated rather than skills-based and the Authority languished through a lack of competent leadership, and departmental direction. This ensured its eventual demise in December 2001.

An incorporated community group, the Avon Waterways Committee (AWC), was formed in 2002 and was made a committee of the board of the Water and Rivers Commission (WRC). The following years saw a number of changes in the agency name but again, the skills to achieve, and the support required, were not evident.

When the government of the day abolished small committees, the Avon Waterways Committee was dissolved. This was the last government-sponsored committee to provide any coordinated advocacy from a community perspective on the Avon River.

During 2011, the Department of Water (currently the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation – DWER) began scaling back its activities in the region. A number of staff members were made redundant, and others transferred to the city. The Northam office had a part-time receptionist for a short time, working mainly on administrative matters for the regional office in Perth; however, once the lease had expired the office was closed.

AVON RIVER TRAINING SCHEME

The woes of the Avon River began at settlement of the Swan River Colony when towns were built along its banks. Toodyay was the first to realise this mistake when in 1860 a new town (Newcastle, later re-named Toodyay) was gazetted upstream and further back from the river. This town – like all the others built along the Avon – still experienced flooding, and the Local Authorities, as far back as 1937, sought assistance from the government to find a solution.

After considerable pressure was applied to the government of the day, in 1947 the Public Works Department (PWD) was requested to look at the flooding issue and report back to government.

A report by R.W. Edwards, Irrigation and Drainage Engineer, PWD, suggested:

“if the treatment is done in the Brookton and Beverley Road Districts, it will in all probability mean treating the river as far as a few miles below Toodyay, a distance in all of approximately 123 miles [198km]. The cost of treating this river spread over a period of four years would be, say, £28,500 [equivalent to $2,298,757 in 2023] …”.

The letter breaks up the costings in each Road Board District with the distances and cost per mile. This ranged from £150 /mile [equivalent to $12,099 in 2023] in Brookton to £300 /mile in Toodyay [equivalent of $24,197 in 2023]. 

Further,

“The following remarks should be borne in mind when considering carrying out the work:-

• The de-snagging will release a considerable amount of silt now held up in the river by thick scrub and debris in the river bed. Portion of this silt will travel down-stream, but a considerable portion will also be deposited in amongst the scrub and debris which it is intended to leave on the banks of the river and on scrub-covered flats adjoining the river.
• Water Holes: The travelling silt mentioned above will, in all probability, fill up the water holes [natural pools] in the river bed and render it necessary for the farmers using these water holes for stock water supplies to sink spears in the sand and erect windmills and troughing for their stock.
• Silting troubles in all probability, will occur in Northam above the existing weir unless the weir is remodelled so that a clear run may be given to the river during the flood periods. At some future date, when the river is properly trained, it will be possible to hold up the water at any desired spot and thus form an artificial frame by the construction of removable weirs as suggested at Northam.”

(1st July, 1947 RWE/G, A PWD HYDRAULICS)

 As can be seen by the above report, written by the PWD, the engineers were well aware that the Avon River Training Scheme (RTS) would release a considerable amount of sediment into the river.

Almost two decades later, after the 1955 floods, the RTS – a government initiated and funded project and supervised by the PWD, commenced.

 A report by J.W. Young, Director of Works, to the meeting of the Avon Valley Development Committee (established in 1955), dated 8th March 1956, suggested the cost of the RTS on the Toodyay-Northam section of the river was £24,000 (the equivalent to $925,075 in 2023). From a legal aspect, “Authority can be given to the Department by the proclamation of the catchment area of the Avon River under part III of the Rights in Water and Irrigation Act.

 “Necessary agreement by the Irrigation Commission to this proposed step has already been given.

 “Broadly, the Department’s proposal involves the construction of a gullet, where necessary, in the flat stream of the river by clearing out all trees and debris over a width of approximately 3 chains [60m]. In some places silt movement by bulldozer will be necessary.”

Work was commenced in 1958 and was continued until 1961 when it was stopped for the effects of the Scheme to be evaluated. It was resumed in 1966.

In the 1970s, moves to halt the RTS were afoot. The damage impact on the riverine environment was quite noticeable. Local Authorities were no longer prepared to contribute to the maintenance of the Scheme, and were requesting it ceases.

In a letter to the Director of the PWD, Dr Brian O’Brien (Director, June 20 1973), from Mrs Judy Hamersley, of the WA Country Party, one of the questions asked was:

Question:“What effect is this cleaning likely to have on the Swan River apart from that already apparent viz. more rapid and frequent flooding in the upper reaches?”

“Answer: I am advised that the Irrigation and Drainage Branch PWD have estimated that most of the material moved by the river water will be held in the bed of the river between Toodyay and the coastal plain.

“Should this not be so, some siltation in the upper stretches of the [Swan] river can be expected which can cause flooding problems in the upper reaches of the river. The Harbours and Rivers Branch has for many years operated a dredge in the upper waters of the river on programmes involving flood abatement.”

Dr O’Brien goes on to say:

“Dead trees, logs and debris, which would impede the flow of water, should be removed from the watercourse if required for flood abatement but riverbeds should not be ripped.” (Ibid)

This virtually sealed the fate of the RTS, undoubtedly the worst engineering disaster in Western Australia during the twentieth century.