Equipment: Soil Moisture Install Aquifer – Part 1

Aquifers like this one have been hit in 10 sites while installing 31 Sentek soil moisture sensors as part of the Mulloon Rehydration Initiative’s integrated monitoring program.

The Mulloon Rehydration Initiative aims to rebuild the natural landscape function of the entire Mulloon catchment in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales and boost its resilience to climatic extremes. This will lead to more reliable stream flows, improved ecosystem functioning and enhanced agricultural productivity. The project is jointly funded through the Mulloon Institute and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

The soil moisture sensors are located at Mulloon Creek Natural Farms (Home Farm & Duralla), at Mulloon Farm North and at Palerang and are being paired with previously installed piezometers.

During their installation, the auger being used to drill the holes where the sensors sit have encountered amazing soil profiles. Sometimes as the auger drove down through the soil layers it slowed considerably due to rock, heavy clay, large gravel, water from an aquifer, and even a fine sandy slurry.

Some of the aquifers have been quite significant, making it difficult to install the bung (plug) at the bottom of the pipe and set it firmly enough to seal the hole as it is hard pushing water back against so much pressure.

Data from the fully installed sensors will initially be sent to Sentek and then transferred to HydroTerra where it will be stored in the integrated data management system. This data will accessible by the public in due course, via the HydroTerra portal.