Scotch College

Of droughts … and flooding rains?

In an attempt to sustain Scotch College grounds, the School has implemented Yarra Valley–approved water conservation plans to help during the drought

Words: David Ashton and Mick Smith Photography: Tim Shearer

In her famous poem, ‘My country’, Dorothea Mackellar enthuses over her love for the ‘sunburnt country’ with its ‘droughts and flooding rains’.

With the ‘drought’ portion of Mackellar’s equation only too real for Victorians, and stage 3 water restrictions long since in place in Melbourne, the beautiful Scotch grounds have taken on a distinctly ‘sunburnt country’ tinge. The ovals – which in normal rainfall times are carpets of emerald green – now have a mottled hue, and the magnificent exotic and native trees look thirsty.

Scotch Curator Michael Smith said the School had submitted a water conservation plan to Yarra Valley Water late in 2006, which the water authority had approved and agreed. Here are the provisions of the plan:

Gardens and lawns

• No watering lawns or spray irrigating garden beds at any time.
• Manual dripper systems (turned on and off by hand) can only be used between 7am and 11am on Tuesdays and Fridays.
• Automatic dripper systems can only be used between midnight and 4am on Wednesdays and Sundays.
• Hand-held hoses fitted with trigger nozzles can only be used on garden beds between 7am and 11am on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Ovals

• The Main Oval can only be watered by automatic irrigation between midnight and 4am on Wednesdays and Sundays, with a maximum of 15 minutes per station.
• Similarly, the Junior School Oval can only be watered by automatic irrigation between midnight and 4am on Tuesdays and Saturdays, with a maximum of 15 minutes per station.
• All other ovals can only be watered using recycled or reclaimed water.

Turf wickets and practice wickets

• Wickets can only be watered with a hand-held hose between 7am and 9am on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (although light watering of the wicket during preparation is permitted).
• Automatic sprinkler systems can only be used on Sundays between midnight and 4am.

Vehicle washing

• Hand-held hoses and high-pressure water cleaners cannot be used at any time for washing vehicles. A bucket filled from a tap can be used to clean windows, mirrors and lights, and to spot-remove corrosive substances.
• Notices about the water conservation plan have been prominently placed on perimeter fencing around Scotch.

‘The grounds staff’s priority is to maintain the condition and beauty of the School grounds, but naturally we are very much aware of the need to save water in a time of such severe drought in Victoria,’ Michael Smith said. ‘While we will of course strictly adhere to the conditions of the water conservation plan, if there are other ways we can restrict our water usage we will consider and adopt them, if they’re practicable,’ he said.