The Farm
Complete Irrigation Solutions (CIS) was asked to design and install an upgraded irrigation system for the 130 hectare (320 acre) Big River broccoli farm at Bacchus Marsh.
The project included pump units, suction and delivery lines, usd electric motor controllers, jacking pump, main line, and a fixed sprinkler system.
The systems consisted of 300mm floating suction lines, 300mm fabricated galvanized steel discharge lines complete with butterfly valves, 300mm stainless steel filters and a wafer check valve that connecting into a common 375mm mainline.
The mainline itself consisted of over 4 kilometers 300mm, 250mm and 200mm uPVC pipe.
CIS Managing Director, Darren Lee, said "This was a complex design and installation as we had to undertake all the work without interrupting the existing irrigation system so that the farm could remain in full production while the work was being carried out."
Controlling all of this was a radio controlled Goldtec valve system. The six self contained pole mounted units consist of a radio receiver with outputs so that when a signal is received from the central control unit, the field unit pulses the latching solenoid to open or close the valves.
The Nursery
In addition, CIS was asked by the client to design and install an irrigation system for a nursery to accommodate 100,000 seedlings.
The main components for the project was a water re-use filtration unit for water from the main dam to supply a 129,000 water tank, a pump unit, mainline installation, sprinkler system and a drainage pump unit back to the main dam.
The system was designed to take water from the main dam and pump it via a jack pump through a water filtration unit, which would clean the water though sand filters and chemical injection with the capacity to treat 5,000 litres per hour, and into the water tank and then pumped inside the igloo’s sprinkler system at an application rate of 12mm per day.
"The client’s requirements were very specific and we managed to meet them within time and within budget. It was an intricate system that required some intelligent design and application." Darren Lee said.
