THE State Government has undertaken works to reduce wind erosion in paddocks along the Sturt Highway, after a Riverland truck driver was killed during a dust storm last year.
Earlier this year, the State Government invested $100,000 to seed two paddocks in the Truro Flats area that were prone to soil drifting, with sown crops now growing on both sites.
In August 2019, truck drivers Coen Fraser, of Renmark, and Brendan Giles, of Andrews Farm, were killed in a head-on collision near Truro during a major dust storm.
Member for Chaffey Tim Whetstone said the seeding was a “good outcome for the safety of motorists”.
“Obviously, we’ve had ongoing drought that’s basically initiated the problem, plus there was some grazing in that paddock, and that pressure exposed extremely light, drifty soils and sands,” he said.
“What we’d seen over time is that it had been very dangerous driving on the highway when we had high winds.
“Due to the drought response that I initiated as a minister, there was some money put aside for soil erosion and land degradation programs.
“The action was put forward and there was $100,000 allocated to seed those two paddocks.
“There was no plan B – they said that they needed rain otherwise there was no point doing.
“Luckily, we had some rain, the paddock was seeded and, despite having another very strong wind event, the emerging crop wasn’t damaged, and then the following week we had some more rain.
“We mitigated the dust but sadly it was all too late for the drivers in that accident.”
Mr Whetstone said the dust storms in the area were “very dangerous” and seeding the paddocks would prevent the land from turning into a “dust bowl”.
“Those paddocks were moonscapes, and now they have sown crops in them,” he said.
“It’s stabilised the two paddocks and I think it’s a great outcome.
“If we had let that go another year, we don’t know what dangers we would have faced on the highway, particularly being a federal highway.
“Hopefully we don’t have to see another dust event there like we’ve been having over the past two years.
“We can’t let our land be degraded and turn into a dust bowl and see a significant amount of erosion that causes angst for motorists and presents a serious safety concern.”