We recently completed a full water system upgrade on a 150-acre grazing block with some seriously hilly terrain, one of those jobs where good planning makes all the difference.
The main issue was storage. The existing setup simply didn’t hold enough water to comfortably supply both the house and stock, especially during drier periods. The solution was to increase storage and completely rethink how water moved around the farm.
Two new tanks were added, one near the house and another right at the very top of the farm. A spring now feeds into the new tank near the house, along with an existing concrete tank. From there, a new pump sends water uphill to the top tank, which then gravity-feeds down to the stock troughs across the block.
To make this work reliably over the elevation change, the job involved trenching and burying around 1.2km of pipeline, using 12-bar pressure pipe to handle the height. A small section of open trenching was carefully done through native bush, keeping disturbance to a minimum.
The system also includes a new pump setup with modern fittings, level indicators, and sensors. Probes and controls now manage how water is distributed, automatically keeping the house tank topped up and ensuring the top tank stays full when needed, taking the guesswork out of day-to-day water management.
In total, the upgrade added an extra 55,000 litres of storage and created a far more resilient system for both household and stock water. On a property like this, with steep country and multiple supply points, having water stored in the right places makes a huge difference.
Another solid result, and a good example of how the right infrastructure can future-proof a farm.
