Hundreds, probably thousands, and certainly generations, of irrigators across Sunraysia and into SA’s Riverland are very successful at what they do, because of one man in particular.
Richard Wells, a Merbein irrigator for 52 years, says Malcolm Gallasch didn’t just revolutionise the irrigation industry, he changed the destiny of a large slice of Australian agriculture.
Now a retired dried fruit and wine grape grower, Mr Wells said when he started on his Merbein block in 1967, he simply carried on the way the industry had been going since the Chaffey brothers first set things up in the 1800s.
“I recall my first years I had four fixed irrigations before harvest and one after,” Mr Wells said.
“In my last year I had 125 irrigations – 100 of them over 100 straight days – and I used less water and produced more fruit than I ever did under the old system.
“That’s the Gallasch factor. Before him nothing had changed for more than 60 years, and then along came the man who didn’t just make irrigation a viable ‘on demand’ system, he also made it a sustainable long-term option because the water wasn’t wasted and any damage to the land was dramatically changed for the better.”
Mr Wells and Mr Gallasch would serve together on the first Sunraysia Rural Water Authority board for nine years and he said he loved watching his fellow director explain change and innovation to others.
Mr Wells said Mr Gallasch never wasted a word, and when asked to report on something, would spell it out in clear and easily digested slices.
“He would then sit back and let people decide what they wanted to do with it – he never got up and pushed and carried on if his ideas or suggestions were not adopted or watered down.
“Malcolm was incredibly knowledgeable and very smart, and even at board meetings he would have sticky notes everywhere with extra detail.
“And if the people he was talking to were smart, they didn’t just listen, they acted.
“Even at his funeral one of his eulogists said he would not waste anyone’s time with hyperbole and frills, because Malcolm certainly never did.”
Mr Wells said people he had spoken to recently all agreed Mr Gallasch was responsible for “momentous change” but it was change which, unusually, was welcomed by everyone involved – even the sceptics.
“He was a great person, with a great mind, who achieved great outcomes.
“After Malcolm worked his wonders in the Riverland and was persuaded to come to Victoria things moved very quickly, even though everyone many in authority said it couldn’t be done.
“But they didn’t have his experience, or his vision, and what he started at Mildura soon spread to Merbein, to Red Cliffs and Robinvale – and eventually Nyah and Tresco.”
No question, Malcolm Gallasch was one of those rare humans who saw things and asked “why not?” and then did something about it.
Momentous somethings.
