REMAKING WETLANDS - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 227

valuable in another. They also draw attention to escalating disputes between
established graziers and newer irrigation industries as irrigated agriculture expanded.
The outcome of the protest by the natural history societies and the ensuing
debates seems to have been that no special open season was declared in 1939,
although the 1938 season continued. A farmer from MIA lobbied biologists in 1940
to undertake further research into the issue, arguing that some farmers continued
to be concerned that ducks damaged rice crops, and others to argue that they helped
the crop (Ellis, 1940: 200). However, no research, or open season, followed. This
may have been due to the view of at least some biologists, evident in the debates
between famers and natural history societies in 1938, that the matter had been
resolved with Kinghorn's report (Editor's notes, in Ellis, 1940: 202). It may also
have been due to the outbreak of war.
World War II had significant implications for rice growing in the MIA. From
1942, rice cultivation expanded to supply food aid to parts of Asia ('Rice Statistics.
1938-57' in Agriculture-Division of Marketing and Economics Correspondence
1923-73, 384B; 'Agriculture', 384B, SRNSW; Anon, 'Rice Growing in Papua and
New Guinea', 1953: 294; Scott, 1985: 275-281). Both the number of farms allowed
to grow rice and the limit on the acreage already under rice cultivation on each
farm were increased temporarily. The state government also expanded rice
cultivation to the Murray valley irrigation districts (Anon, Rice , 1965: 7; Haig-Muir,
1996: 66-69). This expansion occurred despite a severe drought in 1944 and 1945.
Ducks were again attracted to rice fields during these dry years and the Federal
Government gave some ammunition to farmers to shoot ducks. Ducks were also
trapped by the mostly Italian prisoners-of-war who farmed the fields ( Townsville
Bulletin , 26 October 1942 : 2 ; Camperdown Chronicle , 13 March 1945: 4) .
Following the end of World War II, Australia's food aid to parts of Asia
continued and, together with national food security, became a rationale behind
further increasing food production. Temporary rice fields became fixed and
cultivation steadily expanded, in part, sustained through soldier settlement (see
O'Gorman, 2013: 107-108). The expansion of the area under irrigation was
supported by new dams, particularly those built for the Snowy Mountains Hydro-
Electric Scheme, which began construction in 1949. In this post-war era, many
local Wiradjuri returned to the MIA farming areas as labourers for seasonal fruit
picking and factory work, re-settling parts of the towns, which had been
established to service the irrigation industries, particularly Griffith (Kabaila, 1995:
133-134).
During the war years, the NSW Government had continued to declare special
open seasons, but on an occasional basis, for limited periods of time, and only for
some areas (see Canberra Times , 3 February 1949: 5; SMH , 22 February 1952: 5).
This changed in 1952 when farmers attributed a 'rice shortage' to duck damage.
Following a visit to the rice areas, the Chief Secretary of NSW declared a special
open season that started on 1 September 1952 and lasted for five months. 6 At the
same time the Irrigation Research and Extension Committee, on behalf of the
Ricegrowers' Association of Australia, asked the CSIRO to investigate the