Irrigation scheme field trip

Earlier this month, twenty-one WIL board members, staff and consultants spent a day visiting sites of interest around the irrigation scheme with a focus on the environmental initiatives that are helping to connect WIL and its shareholders to the wider community.

We started our tour with a visit to Swannanoa School where WIL has funded a greenhouse for the school and provided native seedlings for the students to grow and plant on shareholders’ properties as part of WIL’s biodiversity project or to sell to the local community.

Other sites visited included Brian and Rosemary Whyte’s property in Tram Road where many of the seedlings grown at Swannanoa School have been planted. After lunch we visited a site at Bennetts Stream near the Eyre River which is also part of the biodiversity project.

We plan to hold another field trip over the next six months with a focus on the infrastructure aspects of the scheme. It is important for board members, staff and our consultants to gain an in-depth understanding of how the irrigation scheme works and the environmental and operational projects that we are working on as a cooperative so they can make well-informed decisions.