Yair . . . remarkably little information about them on the net. I'll dig deeper and may be able to get some private pictures. Couple of links to "Cubbie Station" which I believe is the largest privately owned irrigation setup in the southern hemisphere. It went broke and recently sold to foreign interests. http://images.mdba.gov.au/displayimage.php?album=42&pos=238 http://www.panoramio.com/user/466539/tags/Cubbie Station Notice how they leave the trees standing in those tanks, it helps to dissipate wave action over such a big expanse of water They don't bother much with shelter for the pumpsets. Apart from those shown in the bottom link I believe there is a bank of "V" sixteens somewhere pumping from the river. There was no place for anything but best practice when pushing up such levees and I am told that a fair bit of re-education went on when the farmer/contractor running the show employed some hot-shot dozer hands from the mines . . . good operators and all but all they knew was pushing rills . . . apparently in that sort of going the D10's were pushing four to five foot floors. Cheers.
That makes me feel a little lucky to come from an area that has water, being brought up in a farming/ranching family I get the "water is the most important thing".
That's interesting Scrub. I've heard you use the term "ring tank" in the past and assumed it was a pond or lake. I take it they fill them with the pumps at the river during rain / wet season then use the reserve in dry time? Like playindirt mentioned I also feel lucky that we live in an area that has water. Last year we had a pretty bad drought and crops for the most part burnt up & didn't make anything but somehow the springs kept running from the hillside where we developed a water tank for the livestock.