It’s a silhouette that has become part of the Australian landscape: angled metal blades and a wind vane whirring in the breeze to keep water tanks and stock troughs full.
But on the stock routes of New South Wales, the time of the windmill is coming to an end.
The NSW Local Land Services is slowly removing windmills from their travelling stock reserves, part of a $950,000 plan to replace them with safer, easier to maintain solar-powered pumps.
“Windmills are a renewable source of pumping water and we’re replacing them with an updated renewable source,” says LSS Riverina manager of biosecurity and emergency services, Michael Leane.
The new pumps may lack the romantic charm of a rusty Comet or Southern Cross windmill, but Leane says the “agtech” rollout will make it possible to remotely track water levels, pump function and watering systems – crucial during emergencies when farmers need safe land for stock to graze and drink.
“One of the major purposes [of the project] is for when there is a flood, fire or drought,” he says. “Our reserves are part of the DNA of this country. We need to maintain them, they’re a refuge.”
The decommissioned windmills will be auctioned off by the LSS.
Fan-wheeled windmills were first produced in Britain and the United States before being imported into Australia in the middle of the 19th century. An Australian market took off in the 1870s, helping settlers draw underground water in areas outside the Great Artesian Basin.
Pastoralist Gillian Fennell comes from a family of windmill contractors, covering vast distances across the Queensland tablelands and Northern Territory rangelands. Fennell seems an unlikely advocate for the phase-out of windmills but she says the benefits far outweigh the beauty, and the risks.
“Erecting and maintaining a windmill is a hazardous job,” she says. “You’re working at heights with no safety harness, on a massive piece of machinery that has no real off switch.
“Diesel pumps solved some of these issues by putting the pumping mechanism at ground level … but exposed pulleys and belts claimed their fair share of fingers, arms and lives.”
With new solar pumps entering the market and dramatically reducing the upfront cost, Fennell says she’s seen a shift away from windmills to safer and more effective pumps.
“In remote areas where labour is in short supply and access to qualified technicians is almost nonexistent, producers are now almost completely self-sufficient in the installation and maintenance of their solar water pumping,” she says.
“It’s been a revolution for those of us who live and work in the rangelands of Australia.”
Eugowra farmer and photographer Kim Storey says that, in the latter role, she loves seeing windmills.
“But as a farmer, I understand and I’m impressed by the progression in technology that’s bringing solar pumps as a replacement,” she says.
Storey says windmills have become a symbol of Australian agriculture.
“The windmill is an iconic image of rural Australia, and has enabled farming to progress right across the country in the early days,” she says. “It brings a sense of nostalgia to rural images.”
With albums full of windmills photographed at all hours of the day and night, Storey says she’ll still keep an eye out for the older pumps when she’s on the road with her camera gear.
“When I’m looking at big skies and big sunsets, I’m always looking for something in the foreground to create a bit of interest. When you find a windmill, that fits the bill pretty quickly,” she says.
