Environmental Engineering Reference
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'bionomics of wild ducks in the irrigation areas'. In 1952, Harry Frith began this
research (Frith, 1957a: 32).
Ducks and the expansion of rice: Frith
This was Frith's first assignment in the Wildlife Survey Section of CSIRO, headed
by Francis Ratcliffe since its creation in 1949. 7 Since 1946, Frith had been the
Assistant Research Officer at an Irrigation Research Station in Griffith, a town in
the MIA. His work there had concentrated on the cultivation of orange trees,
but he was increasingly fascinated by the birds of the region. In 1952, he sought
to transfer to the Wildlife Survey Section to pursue this interest, as the oppor-
tunity for researching ducks arose (Tyndale-Biscoe et al ., 1995: 247-249; Robin,
2007a).
Frith's research was requested by the Ricegrowers' Association, which had
wholly disregarded Kinghorn's study because 'his conclusions were based on two
short visits to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and an examination of very few
ducks' (letter from Secretary Irrigation Research and Extension Committee, to
Secretary CSIRO, 22 February 1952.; 'Rice damage', NAA). Frith's research was
extensive, lasting a number of years: he drew on observations he had already made
about the birds during his time in the region, as well as undertaking new research
through to 1956, which involved gizzard analysis of 1,849 ducks and field
observations (Frith, 1957a: 33-45). The species Frith concentrated on were wood
duck, and 'among the river ducks, the grey teal, black duck and white-eyed duck'
(ibid.: 35). Like Kinghorn, Frith found 'that a division of opinion existed among
the growers themselves' (ibid.: 33).
Frith also found, like Kinghorn, that farming practices were important in
limiting crop damage. He argued that the damage attributed to ducks from
puddling the soils and 'other activities', could often be traced to the same farming
practices described by Kinghorn, which led to there being patches where no rice
germinated. In addition, he identified the problem of destruction from wind. Most
significantly, Frith argued that bare patches in the crop from poor germination rates
created good landing places for ducks, who could settle there and widen the
opening by pushing down encircling plants. In a statement echoing that of
Kinghorn's, Frith wrote, 'it was observed that even well-grown crops of rice were
very rarely visited by the birds' (ibid.: 47). Both the MIA and the newer Murray
Valley irrigation districts were included in Frith's study and he implied that farming
practices, and thus damage, were worse in the more recent rice growing areas. He
wrote that those in the MIA had been growing rice for 'more than 30 years' and
in contrast in the Murray Valley, 'rice growing was begun as a wartime expedient,
and was undertaken largely by graziers with no experience of the crop'; while
cultivation had 'improved', Frith argued that 'the area still lags far behind the MIA'
(ibid.: 34). For Frith, the consequences of farming practices on duck damage and
the overall crop were his 'most significant finding' (ibid.: 49). Frith's argument was
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