Journal Article

In portions of the Mallee country in north-western Victoria and eastern South Australia the drifting of fine sand under the influence of the wind is creating a serious problem for public utilities. In certain sections a considerable amount of work is involved in keeping railways and roads clear for traffic, and in at least one instance it has been found impossible to keep an irrigation channel in operation. Various measures to prevent the trouble have been tried, but none have proved more than temporarily effective and some are quite useless. The great difficulty is that the sand is not rolled or pushed by the wind, as in sea-coast dune formation, but is actually carried in suspension in the air and is deposited where any obstruction causes a decrease in the velocity of the air currents.