About the Irrigation Research & Extension Committee

vision | structure | history

History of cooperation

The Irrigation Research and Extension Committee formed to address the many problems faced by the settlers in the early days of the MIA.

Three government agencies, the Water Conservation & Irrigation Commission, the Department of Agriculture and CSIR (now CSIRO) came together to form the Irrigation Research & Extension Committee in the spring of 1939. At about the same time, irrigator organisations and marketing cooperatives were also banding together to work on common interests, and in 1941 a joint executive committee of growers’ organisations was formed.

The grower’ executive committee, the government agencies committee (IREC) and an advisory committee of CSIR worked alongside but separately to each other until 1947, when the three committees came together to form the IREC, as it is known today.

Since its inception IREC has been hailed as:

“Unique in the history of Australian agriculture”
“A force for progress in the irrigation areas”
“An outstanding Australian experiment in agriculture organisation”

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