A drive in the countryside - St George

Yesterday we decided to drive along the edge of the dammed river, where there was mostly bush and small  pastures, a couple of vineyards and two very large cotton plantations.  

But first, two photographs taken on my early morning walk with Piper. 

The beautiful reflections on the river water.

The metal statue of a ram outside the motel.   The curls of wool were made with old horse shoes, and the curls on the head were made with chains.   I could not work out the rest of the metal used in the statue.  An impressive statue.

This photograph was taken late in the afternoon.    One should never take photos when looking directly into the sun, unless you are clever or change the settings.   I did neither.   If you look closely you can see a road train, consisting of a cab and three trailers.

                                         

But back to our drive yesterday.  At first the road running beside the river was bitumen, but after a while it became a gravel road, well maintained, and with plenty of dead kangaroos on the side of the road, and in many cases in the middle of the road.   I made sure I carefully drove around them, not wanting to end up with kangaroo meat sticking to the car.    I did feel sorry for them though.   Obviously this road has many large vehicles using it, and travelling at speed.   It was also a 'no through road'.

And no wonder, as the huge dams and cotton fields eventually appeared, and finally we reached a sign which stated that you could not drive any further unless you had prior permission, 'for bio security reasons'.

So we stopped, turned around and took a few photographs.  

A cotton field, with balls of cotton in the foreground.    Crops are planted in September, and harvested about April.    Sometimes other crops, such as peas are grown during April to September.    

I consulted Google, as you do, and every article was positive about growing cotton.    Apparently the crop uses no more water than an orchard, the genetically modified crops do not need huge amounts of chemicals, each farm is given an allowance of water, and most cotton farms are family run.    

Most farms use flood irrigation methods, so the furrows below are filled with water.

Interestingly most of the cotton farms are not visible from main roads, but their infrastructure is immense.  Enormous dams with long deep channels, filled with water,  running for kilometres.  The machinery to put the infrastructure into each farm, most cost a fortune, which is why, I think they are owned by huge corporations.

This trench was very deep, however there was not much water in it.     

Another deep canal.    All the water comes from the Balonne River or rainwater (does not rain often).   We drove through Dirranbandi on the way to St George and apparently Cubbie Station is the largest single irrigated property and cotton farm in the Southern Hemisphere, spanning roughly 93,000 to 96,000 hectares with nearly 20,000 to 22,000 hectares developed for active irrigation.   This huge property operates as CS Agriculture with the majority ownership held by Shandong Ruyi.   All sounds very much a foreign owned corporation.   The Balonne River was but a tickle in Dirranbandi. 

These areas are extremely dry, with very little rainfall.    Cotton growing also involves the vast clearing of scrub, which is there for a very good reason.

The Balonne River on the other side of the weir, is at this point a trickle of water, but it fills out further down the river.

A beautiful old Queenslander homestead, with lovely gardens and threes.   

We all love wearing cotton clothes, and use cotton linen, but until recently I have never really thought much about how and where it is grown.   And the long term effects it may have on the environment.    India and China are the main buyers of Australia's cotton, however, they are also the main growers of cotton.  

I find it interesting but scary.