This situation has not come about by accident. There has been a steady and progressive investment in the development and use of Australia's water resources from the time of the earliest settlements, at both the technical and political levels.

Mistakes were made, particularly in irrigation development, but this was to be expected, given the differences in environment, climate and soils from those pertaining in the homelands of the early engineers and agriculturalists.

This bicentennial symposium is devoted essentially to outstanding or unusual technological developments in Australia since the arrival of the First Fleet.

This chapter on Water and Irrigation is therefore concerned with technological advances in the water industry which represent either completely new local innovations or the adaptation and improvement of overseas techniques of sufficient significance at the time to represent a major advance within the industry in Australia. Indeed, some of these local adaptations were so successful that they have been exported to other countries.

The major emphasis is on the adaptation and improvement of imported techniques, reflecting the general trend in Australia and our relatively modest expenditure in many fields of indigenous research and development.

The water industry has been more fortunate, perhaps, than some others in following this path, in that it has been able to adapt and improve from elsewhere in design, construction and management techniques with general success and at reasonable cost.

It follows, then, that there is no mention here of the many large water supply, sewerage and drainage projects serving our major cities, the extensive flood mitigation and land drainage schemes in several rural areas and the wide ranging hydraulic research carried out by tertiary institutions and water supply authorities, except in respect of significant innovations or adaptations brought to the writer's attention.

This is no reflection on the standard or importance of these works, which are generally of world class. It is simply a reflection of the deliberately restricted scope of this study, and the writer regrets the omission of any important inventions or adaptations, which is certain to have occurred.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering