Detailed Soil Surveys

Air photo used in the detailed soil
survey - east of Tatura.

Soil Surveys of the Shepparton Irrigation Region

The soils of the Shepparton Irrigation Region have been described in soil surveys by Butler

et al

. (1942), Skene and Freedman (1944), Johnston (1952), Skene and Poutsma (1962), Skene (1963) and Skene and Harford (1964). Soil survey was carried out by soil auger with holes 20 m to 400 m apart at depths between 1.2 m and 2.1 m. The surveyors then examined the horizons of the profile and noted their texture, colour, thickness, and the presence of lime and gypsum. The main irrigated and dryland enterprises of the region undertaken at the time of the surveys are listed in the table below.

Detailed Soil Survey

Survey	County	Irrigation area	Irrigated Agriculture	Dryland Agricul- ture	Area (ha)	Reference
Soils and Land Use in the Rochester and Echuca Districts, Victoria.	Rodney Gunbower Bendigo	Rochester Echuca East Campaspe	fat lambs dairy orchards	wheat sheep (wool)	106 838	Skene and Harford (1964)
Soils and Land Use in the Deakin Irrigation Area, Victoria.	Rodney	Deakin	fat lambs dairy	wheat sheep (wool)	60 703	Skene (1963)
Soils and Land Use in Part of the Goulburn Valley, Victoria.	Rodney Moira	Rodney, Tongala-Stanhope, North Shepparton, South Shepparton.	fruit dairy fat lambs tomatoes vegetables peaches pears apricots	wheat sheep (wool)	225 817	Skene and Poutsma (1962)
The Soils of the Western Part of the Murray Valley Irrigation Area and their Classification for Irrigation.	Moira	Murray Valley West				Johnston (1952)
Soil Survey of Part of Shepparton Irrigation District, Victoria.	Moira	Shepparton			9 898	Skene and Freedman (1944)
Soil Survey of Part of the County of Moira, Victoria.	Moira	Murray Valley East			82 279	Butler et al. (1942)

These soil surveys grouped the soils into six different categories depending on their suitability to grow certain crops. These groupings were based on the common crops that were normally grown on irrigated soils at that time. The groupings of soils are similar for the three surveys. In all three surveys Group VI soils were not recommended for irrigation because they were swampy or had uneven surfaces making layout for irrigation impractical.

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