1927 to 1942: Interdepartmental Surveys

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In 1927 Mr F Penman was appointed as Assistant Research Chemist and in 1928, with the appointment of Mr J K M Skene, a soil survey was commenced at Woorinen in cooperation with C.S.I.R. (Belcher, 1977). During the following 14 years seven large scale surveys in irrigation districts along the Murray River were carried out as cooperative projects with C.S.I.R.

The first detailed soil survey in Australia was carried out in the Renmark area in South Australia by J Taylor and H England and published by the C.S.I.R in 1929. Their mapping was based on a detailed examination of the soil profile with the view to understanding the problems of waterlogging and salinity that were developing under intensive irrigation. Shortly later, in 1930, a similar soil survey was published for the Woorinen Settlement, near Swan Hill. These surveys, seven in all, set the pattern for a number of surveys published by the CSIR in the 1930’s and early 1940’s in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture. The role of the Department was to provide soil analyses under the direction of Mr Frank Penman, who shared authorship of these publications. Penman and Skene (1936) also carried out a soil survey proposed for the site of the Horticultural Research Station at Tatura. Apart from a survey of the Western Murray Irrigation Area (Johnston, 1952), the last C.S.I.R survey in Victoria was published was in 1942. Others who participated in the CSIR surveys were Jim Baldwin, Tim Marshall, J Freedman, G Burvill and Geoffrey Leeper.

These early surveys were carried out to provide basic data for the investigation of district problems in the mid-Murray horticultural settlements. The problems were, in the case of vines, low productivity on certain soils because of salinity, defective drainage and unfavourable soil texture: and, in the case of citrus, early decline and chlorosis (Skene, 1961). Areas surveyed were at Kerang, Merbein, Mildura, Moira, Murrabit, Nyah and Woorinen. The County Moira survey was published in 1942 (Butler, Baldwin, Penman and Downes, 1942). Although most of the fieldwork was carried out by officers of the C.S.I.R all of the associated analyses were made in the laboratory of the Department of Agriculture under the direction of Penman. Penman collaborated in the field classification and mapping of the soils in all of these surveys and was co-author of five of the subsequent publications (Walbran, 1971).

Independent of C.S.I.R, J.K.M Skene and J. R. Freedman, under Penman’s supervision, began the first major large scale survey of Victorian soils in the Shepparton Irrigation District in 1939. This survey was initiated because of heavy losses of peach and apricot trees in 1939 and in other years of abnormally heavy rainfall. Waterlogging was recognised as the cause but the soil conditions conducive to waterlogging were not fully known. Physical properties were important and in the selection of the classification criteria, emphasis was placed on texture and thickness of horizons, together with soil colour as an index of the efficiency of natural drainage (Skene, 1961). The total area mapped and reported in publications concerned with irrigation districts during this period was approximately 118 000 hectares. A survey of the area proposed as a site for the Horticultural Research Station at Tatura was carried out and reported by F. Penman in 1936 (Penman, 1936). Smaller surveys concerned with suitability for airfield construction were carried out by J. K. M. Skene at Cowwarr near Heyfield and at Green Hill near Kyneton.