Water Extractions: Moree

More images from Google Earth, these ones showing the cotton plantations around the town of Moree. The Gwydir River which flows to the Barwon and then the Darling runs thru the town. These lazer graded areas are NW of the town, taking water from a tributary of the Gwydir. As you can see from this first image - some parts of GE have more detail than other sections. The 'ring tanks' are the white and blue square/rectangular areas.

Zooming a little closer and the waterway wiggles diagonally thru the centre. Unlike farming country there are no trees on cotton plantations. The land is lazer graded with a gradual slope for water to reticulate down the rows of cotton bushes. Each bay is divided not by fences but by open chanels of water.

You can gain some sense of scale from the trees to the right of the image - those ring tanks are big! Because animals do not graze the harvested cotton bushes there is no need for trees or fences (to shelter and contain the animals). When I visited Bourke in 2002 the dead cotton bushes were raked into large piles with huge machines and set alight. A very dramatic image but environmentally hazardous.


A close up showing the huge amount of earth moving, chanelling and flattening of the landscape. The banks around the ringtank and alonside the chanels are also roadways for cars and trucks.

The wooded area to the right gives an indication of the trees removed by the cotton operation.

Diesel is required for the pumps which are under the metal structures on the chanels. The trees are the large Red River Gums and give some indication of scale.

In the image below werve zoomed out again, showing the area just looked at - and the area beyond it. Wherever there is a waterway the land is also divided into cotton plantations with the blue area indicating the water storage 'ring tank'. The town of Moree is just above the Google logo.