Landcare - Pipalyatjara Project - II

It was decided to conduct a second direct seeding program at Pipalyatjara on the heavier clay soils closer to the community. The purpose of the work was to establish clumps of trees and shrubs, hence spirals were made using the opposed disc plough rather than using staggered furrows for the seed bed. The spirals were circular in shape with about 3 meters between the furrows in each spiral. The idea behind using the spirals was to make better use of the rain water that was collected and for the trees and shrubs that did germinate to support each other within the clump.

There was some naturally occurring Mitchell grass growing around Pipalyatjara so barley mitchell grass (Astrebla pectinata) was used through the seed box. Old man saltbush (Atriplex nummularia), mulga (Acacia aneura) and bramble wattle (Acacia victoriae) were hand planted, each on different spirals. The following pictures show the pattern of spirals used around the eastern edge of the community.

Direct seeding project using spirals (February 1992)

Picture 1: View of a spiral being ploughed using an opposed disc plough mounted on the three point linkage of a large tractor. The two discs cut a furrow on the outside of a hill which is thrown up by the discs. Seed falls through two tubes from the seed box onto the sides of the hill mixing in with the loose soil. Rain water was easily collected between the circles within the spiral.	Picture 2: Aerial view of the pattern of spirals ploughed around the eastern edge of the community. Note the darker outline of the spirals on soils with a heavier clay content.