Soils of the Birchip Region
 Landscape in the Birchip region showing gilgai microrelief (photo: David Smith, 1996). | Geology and Geomorphology |
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The image shown on the map is an enhanced Landsat TM image which was acquired on 27th October 1997. It is a false colour composite with Band4 displayed as red, Band3 as green and Band2 as blue. Healthy crops and pastures appear bright red in the image, with varying shades indicating the stage of growth. Water bodies with clear water show up as deep blue. Other varying shades of colour generally indicate varying ground cover and land conditions. Land shown in cyan is typically bare or fallow. The soil pit sites shown on this image have been characterised in association with the Birchip Cropping Group (external link). A series of soil pits were described during 2000 and 2002 as part of the Overcoming Rootzone Constraints (ORZC) project funded by the State Government’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Initiative. Other soil pits were described in late 1993 (as part of a National Landcare Program funded project) and have also been included here. The more recent soil pits have been characterised as part of the 'Healthy Soils' project being run by DPI in association with BCG. |
Soil Pit Sites
These soil pits have been selected as example soil profiles for major soil types in the Birchip area. There is only limited information available on soil types in this area and only general Land System maps exist at a broad scale of 1:250 000. Therefore, these pit sites should be used as a guide only to some of the soils. It is not possible to give an estimate as to how representative these sites are of major soil types across the region.
 Soil core work as part of the ORZC project. From left: Mohammad Abuzar (DPI), Richard Webster (visiting scientist, UK), Richard MacEwan (DPI), Paul Rampant (DPI), Mark Imhof (DPI) and Steve Ryan. |  |  Soil pit field day held with the Birchip Cropping Group in February 2003. |
Acknowledgments We wish to thank Ian and Warrick McClelland, John Ferrier, John Jones, Rex Barbary and Neil Davis for organising the site selection and soil pit excavation in 1993. A number of landholders must be thanked for allowing soil pits to be excavated during 2000 and 2002 including Leigh and Julie Weir, Ian and David Smith, Glenys Rickard, Alistair and Marcus Ferrier, Graeme and Jeni McLean, Roger, Dianne and Lincoln Lehmann, Eddie and Francis Lee. Tony Fay (DPI, Birchip) must be thanked for organising a number of the 2002 pit sites. |  Everyone is interested in looking at soil pits! |
© The State of Victoria, 1996 - 2009.
This document was last reviewed on 01/10/2008