Drip irrigation widely adopted in Australia

Date or time period: 1970s

Drip irrigation was first introduced to a commercial vineyard in 1969 and was widely adopted in Australia during the 1970s. It required a higher level of technology, e.g. filtration systems and pressure-compensating drippers. This allowed exploitation of sloping of land for viticulture which previously had not been possible due to low rainfall, shallow soil. Improved water-use was achieved by better irrigation scheduling through the use of weather-based modelling in South Africa, Israel and Australia