03.12.21, 07:04 8.

Yeomans Keyline Systems Explained - Yeomans Plow

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The Keyline system has changed only 11. Cheap Solar

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Yeomans' original books on Keyline.
The main change started in the late
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8. Yeomans Keyline Systems Explained 12

THE KEYLINE SYSTEM AND ITS STORY

The Keyline system has changed only slightly from my father, P.A, Yeomans’   original books on Keyline. The
main change started in the late 1960s with our work on developing a ripper with almost zero disturbance of
soil layer profiles. The modern subsoiler was born and highly accelerated Keyline soil fertility enhancement
became possible and practical.

There are two facets to Keyline.

The FIRST teaches how soil fertility can be rapidly, permanently and cheaply enhances.

The SECOND teaches how the topography of the land can be best utilized to build that fertility and
additionally how to plan the farm layout.

Keyline planning is based fundamentally on the natural topography of the land. It uses the form and shape of
the land to determine the layout and position of farm dams, irrigation areas, roads, fences, farm buildings
and tree lines. Today, Keyline topographical concepts are often taught in university town planning courses.

Keyline is an agricultural system in which great emphasis is placed on processes designed to increase
substantially the fertility of soils. Emphasis is placed on the creation of a soil environment that rapidly
accelerates soil biological activity, thus vastly increasing the total organic matter content within the soil.

YEOMANS

KEYLINE SYSTEM AND CONCEPTS

THE KEYLINE SYSTEM HAS CHANGED ONLY SLIGHTLY FROM

1 THE ORIGINAL BOOKS BY P.A. YEOMANS. THIS EXPLAINS CURRENT

THINKING. Keyline planning is based on the natural topography of

  the land. It uses the form and shape of the land to determine

the layout and position of farm dams, irrigation areas,

  roads, fences, farm buildings and tree lines. Keyline

topographical concepts are often taught in university

 
town planning courses.
  Keyline is an agricultural system in which great emphasis

is placed on processes designed to increase substantially

  the fertility of soils. Emphasis is placed on the creation

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of a soil environment that rapidly accelerates soil biological

1 activity, thus vastly increasing the total organic matter

content within the soil.

 
Keyline lay-outs of farm and grazing lands also incorporate

  designs permitting the storage of run-off water on the


farm itself. This effectively spreads the often irregular

 
rainfall patterns so common to Australia, and in consequence

  enhances rural production.

  Keyline lay-outs and practices are designed and predicated

to the concept that farming systems that improve the fertility

2 of soils, and food production from these soils, must be

profitable to the man who farms the land.

 
Keyline concepts are totally against the current artificial

  and dangerous practice of concentrating run off water

into manufactured disposal drains designed to remove,

  as rapidly as possible, run-off water off a rural landscape.

The rapid evacuation of rainwater to the nearest ocean,

  in this, the driest of the world’s continents is particularly

illogical. In addition, this practice can and often does

  create more disastrous erosion than it was ever expected

to cure.
2
Keyline considers as totally erroneous the belief that

  soil creation is an infinitely slow process and soil once

“lost” is lost forever. In fact soil fertility,

 
and even soil itself can often be created faster than

  it can be eroded.
Keyline practices, once implemented, effectively eliminate

 
soil erosion, even as a possibility. The battle against

3 soil erosion and the concept of “soil conservation”

as a significant issue becomes totally meaningless.

 
The name Keyline was given to the particular contour

  that runs through the point, in all small headwater valleys

where the slope change occurs. This contour is the primary

  contour in Keyline planning. Among other things it delineates

the transition contour for cultivation, above which all

  “contour” cultivation must proceed up the slope,

and below which all “contour” cultivation must proceed

3 down the slope.

  The result of such “Keyline Pattern” cultivation

is that an overall drift of surface runoff water occurs

  which prevents runoff concentration and the resultant

gutter erosion from occurring. It increases the time of

  contact between the rain and the earth. It has the effect

of turning storms into steady soaking rain.

 
The Keyline contour need not be on the individual farm.

4 It is only necessary to know whether the contour to be

paralleled is above, or below a relevant Keyline. In this

 
way “drift” in either direction can be determined

  and implemented. Paralleling up, or paralleling down from

a contour can direct the drift of rainwater away from

  erosion sensitive valley floors.

  The inversion of soil layers is quite contrary to Keyline

concepts and in fact contrary to almost every type of

4 soil fertility building practices anywhere in the world.

All cultivation, in fertility enhancing agriculture is

  best done using an adaptation of the “forked stick”

plough of ancient times. Our own original cultivation

  experiments used a variety of earth moving rippers until

  we discovered the Texas built Graham Hoehme Chisel Plow.

We redesigned the old Graham Hoehme Chisel Plow to suit

  the more extreme conditions usually found in Australia.

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The plough was developed and promoted. The acceptance

5 and almost universal adoption of chisel ploughs has been

one of the most beneficial and noticeable changes in Australian

  agriculture this last century.

  We found over time that the chisel plow required more


fundamental refinements. It was good but it was still

 
not the ideal implement for rapid soil development type

  agriculture. It was virtually incapable of one-go deep

tillage without excessive soil profile disturbance. The

5 current Yeomans Plow thus evolved. And the modern subsoil

plough was born. These implements achieve virtually the

  ultimate in Keyline cultivation requirements. They are

able to operate well into the subsoil without the usual,

  dilution by mixing, of the shallow topsoil with the huge

bulk of infertile subsoil underlaying it. The concept

  of the narrow tine subsoiler we developed is now receiving

wide spread acceptance by both farmers and other manufactures.

 
This new plough has allowed for much accelerated Keyline

6 soil development progression by eliminating the need for

the time consuming, yearly increase in cultivating depth

  necessary with the chisel plow

  Keyline layouts for rainwater collection, storage and

irrigation has many advocates especially following the

 
experiments on Keyline techniques by Sydney University

and promoted as “water harvesting”. The universities

 
lack in not also realising the importance of fertile soil,

6 as a most economical water storage medium, limited the

worth of their studies, and to some extent also restricted

  its acceptance.

  The refinement of Keyline techniques following P.A. Yeomans’

the original books has seen a greater emphasis on determining

  the most economical planning sequences for larger water

storage sites, and even more rapid fertility build ups.

  Larger farm dams have tended to prove more viable.

7 A development program and layout for a property, with

a sequence of operations based on relative economic viability

  of the individual stages, and including the location of

tree lines, road ways, water storage dams, fence lines

  and houses is now easy and so totally logical. It is now

a simple matter to determine a complete farm or property

  design, often in a matter of a few hours

  While Keyline designs are based on the topography and

geology of the land, individual properties, unfortunately,

7 are shaped by an historic location of survey lines, and

such lines generally bear no relationship whatsoever to

 
topographical land forms. In consequence idealised Keyline

  systems are usually hampered a little by the restraints

of farm boundaries. A major requirement of Keyline designs

  is then to utilise the landform and topography, within

the restraints imposed by these boundaries. But that’s

  easy.

8 Co-operation between farmers to their mutual benefit would

eliminate these design restraints and make for huge economic

  savings and create viability for water harvesting and storage

systems that otherwise, just possibly, could not exist.

  This coupled with correct cultivation and soil development

techniques to enhance biological activity would more rapidly,

  vastly increase the fertility of all our soils, to all our

benefit.
 
8
The

 
following information is taken from:
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following information is taken from:

  PRIORITY ONE Together We Can Beat Global Warming

by Allan J. Yeomans 2005

 
Keyline

  planning is based on the natural topography of the land


and its rainfall. It uses the form and shape of the land

9 to determine a farm ’s total layout. The topography

of the land, when viewed in the light of Keyline concepts,

  clearly delineates the logical position of on-farm dams,

irrigation areas,roads,fences and farm buildings. It also

 
determines the location of tree belts to provide shade and

  give wind protection. Keyline concepts also include processes

for rapid soil enrichment. The shape of a landscape is produced

  by the weathering of geological formations over millennia.

The processes are always the same. And so the topography

9 of agricultural land has a basic fundamental consistency.

It is the inevitable nature of land shape that river valleys

  collect water from smaller creek valleys. They in turn are

fed their water from still smaller valleys, until finally

  the water derives from the very first, or primary

valleys of the catchment area. In any country,anywhere,when

  rain shapes the land over long periods of time, it inevitably

creates and determines the topography of that land. Ultimately,

 
at the extreme upstream of any river system there always

exists thousands of primary valleys. The only variation

10 to consistent topographical shapes occurs where geological

features, such as hard rock outcrops modify normal surface

 
weathering.
 

10
 

11
  At

the end of all these branches, sub-branches an sub-sub branches

 
are thousand of even smaller valleys that are the primary

  valleys so important in Keyline planning. The map is of

northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland and shows

  part of the catchment areas of the east Australian inland

rivers system.
11
A contour

  is a line meandering over the ground, always at the same

height above sea level.The name Keyline was given to a single,

  very unique contour that occurs in all primary valleys.

As you walk up the watercourse in a primary valley, the

  slope of the valley floor will suddenly increase.

That point of sudden steepening is the “Keypoint ”

  of the valley. A contour line surveyed to run through this

Keypoint becomes the Keyline contour for that valley. Because

12 of the consistency in water-formed topographical land shapes

there is always a Keyline. The Keyline is always the primary

 
  contour and guideline that tells us which way to cultivate

when attempting contour cultivation. It is also a logical

  starting point for any farm layout planning,and supplies

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a fundamental principle on which modifications to

  existing layouts can be based. In planning the layout of

a farm or ranch it is often the case that no other contour

12
 
lines on the property need be surveyed and pegged, just

the Keylines for each primary valley. Keyline contour surveying


expenses therefore are always minimal. Normally when any

  conventional contour ploughing is undertaken,a contour line

is first pegged or otherwise marked on the ground,

  then ploughing commenced. Cultivation runs are made somewhere

between the valley centre line and the adjacent ridge. The

  first furrow is ploughed adjacent to, and parallel

to the marked contour line. The second run is of course

13 adjacent to the first and so on. Let ’s say,

for illustration that each run is ploughed below the previous

  run, as in the diagram on page 134. Because of the natural

topography of rain formed land shapes,cultivation runs soon

  and inevitably depart from the original and accurately marked

contour. This always happens and usually after only a few

  parallel runs.
 

13
 

14
This

  diagram indicates the terms used in describing Keyline concepts.

Contour intervals are drawn in from the 130-foot line to

  the 260-foot line.

In conventional

 
contour cultivation this effect is never appreciated and,

  more often than not, is seen as an apparently unexplainable

irritation. Or it ’s ignored and invariably to the

14 detriment of the land. Because of this off-contour drift,

water flow can be directed the wrong way and contour

  cultivation then creates the very erosion problems it is

supposed to solve. Keyline cultivation centres on the planned

  and logical use of this “off-contour ” cultivation

and water drift phenomenon. In the illustration the length

  of the guide contour shown might be a few hundred yards

long and the picture represents an area on the side of a

  primary valley. The slope of the land surface is always

a little steeper at one end of this line than at the other

15 end. This difference is important in understanding Keyline

cultivation. In the illustration, when ploughing by paralleling

 
the guide contour and then progressively progressing down

  the slope, each successive cultivation run will be slightly

lower at the steeper end of the paddock. This follows as

  each pass with the cultivator will always have the same

width, but across each width the vertical height will be

  slightly different. Inevitably, after just a few passes,

the ploughed furrows will no longer be on a true contour.

15 They will now have a de finite fall one-way or the

other, in this case to the left. Rain run-off will therefore

  tend to have a positive flow, or drift along the now

slightly descending furrows. Now, if on the other hand the

  ploughing starts parallel to the true contour but this time

ploughing progresses up the slope, then each successive

 
  cultivation run will be slightly higher at the steeper end

of the cultivation area. Again the individual cultivation

16 runs will no longer be true contours. The drift of rain

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g
or irrigation water run-off will be reversed. The water

  will move to the right. It ’s logical to delay the

concentration and velocity of rainwater wherever possible

 
so it makes sense to give water a bias to move out form

the valley centre and not into it. Such drifts dramatically

minimize the all too common rapid concentration of rainwater

  in valleys. The hundreds of furrows in Keyline pattern cultivation

spread the water and inhibit concentrations. In total contrast

16 the contour banks or drains advocated by standard soil conservation

practices are designed to rapidly concentrate water into

  a valley, which naturally increases its eroding action.

Understanding this fundamental concept gives us control

  of rainwater drift and flow over the land surface.

Of course if an area, for some extraneous reason is always

  too wet, reversing the sequence of cultivation will dry

it out. The Keyline contour is extremely important in contour

  cultivation. Above this unique contour the valley is steeper

than the adjoining ridge. Below

17
 

17
 

18

 
Illustrating

 
how cultivating parallel to a contour line inevitably forces

  succeeding ploughed furors away from being true contours.

the Keyline

  the valley is flatter than the adjacent ridge. Thus

cultivating parallel to the Keyline contour and moving up

18
the slope drifts water out of the valley and cultivating

  parallel to the Keyline contour and moving down the slope

also drifts water out of the valley. If this phenomenon

  is not recognized, what is supposedly contour cultivation

can manufacture the erosion that contour cultivation is

  traditionally believed to prevent. This subtle but critical

feature occurring in all natural landforms determines surface

  water movement and this must be appreciated before attempting

contour ploughing. The Keyline contour is thus the “transition

19 ” contour. Above the Keyline, contour cultivation

runs must progress up the slope. Below the Keyline, contour

  cultivation runs must progress down the slope. The result

of such Keyline Pattern cultivation is that the overall

  drift of surface run- off water tends to always drift run-off

away from the wet valley floor and out onto the dryer

 
ridge. Erosion caused by rainwater flow is effectively

  eliminated. Normally most water erosion occurs down the

centre line of a valley and results from

19
 

 
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20

 

20
 

21

  The

solid lines are true contours. The dashed lines depict parallel

  cultivation furors.

The diagram above left shows a primary valley and its Keypoint

 
along with its associated Keyline.

21 Cultivation has proceeded from the Keyline up the slope

and also from the Keyline down the slope. Both drift the
  run-off rainwater away from the valley floor. Above

the Keyline cultivation must always start at a true contour

  and parallel up the slope. Below the Keyline cultivation

must always start at a true contour and parallel down the

  slope. In other words all cultivation runs must always parallel

away from the valley’s Keyline.

  In the diagram above right the upper cultivation is correct

and is proceeding away from the Keyline. But note how in

22 the lower cultivation area the runs are starting at the

130-foot contour and proceeding towards the Keyline thus

  forcing runoff to concentrate into the valley centre.

  the excess

concentration in water volume and water speed that normally

  occur there. Keyline pattern cultivation spreads the flow

out over a wide area, rendering it harmless. It also markedly

  increases the time of contact between the rainwater and

the soil. Water has more time to be absorbed. Keyline pattern

22
cultivation has the effect of allowing heavy storm rains

  to be absorbed more easily into the earth. Generally such

absorption only ever happens with steady soaking rain. Keylines

  in adjacent primary valleys are always slightly lower as

you proceed down the main valley or watercourse linking

  the primary valleys. The location of farm dams or ponds

are decided by using that valley ’s Keyline to determine

  the highest water level for the proposed dam. A Keyline

contour drain can then collect any run-off and help fill

23 the dam. Because of the drop in height of successive Keylines,

an outlet pipe through a dam wall will generally approximate

  the level of the Keyline in the next valley downstream.

Generally, with very minor adjustments in levels, dam sites

 
  can be logically linked so each Keyline dam can feed, via

a contour channel, to the next lower dam. These contour

  drains are can be the same as conventional soil conservation

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drains but must be almost flat to prevent the erosion

23 soil conservation drains can cause. A fall of 1 in 500 or

even 1 in 1, 000 is usually plenty. Installing a big outlet

  pipe is wise when constructing a farm dam as this gives

 
absolute control of the system and pumping becomes unnecessary.

Everything is done by gravity. The design of farm dams,

  constructed with large irrigation pipes a foot or more in

diameter, buried under the dam wall and fitted with

  valves, and farm dams that can be filled or emptied

by contour drains, is a Keyline concept. It is a concept

24 my father borrowed from his experience in gold mining and

gold washing in Australia and New Guinea. In gold mining,

  water often has to be transported for miles, usually through

dif ficult country and it must be done cheaply. In

gold mining, even more so than in farming, water itself

is gold. Water ’s collection, storage and cost are

of critical importance. The placement of dams with their

feeder and delivery channels

An

irrigation drain with two flags in position in readiness

to hold back and over flow the water stream

Canvas

wall being used to flood irrigate hill side land after

previous Keyline pattern cultivation. The water, released

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by the valve in the back of the dam wall, moving along the

drain under gravity has reached the first flag,

filled it, and just commenced to flow over the

lip of the drain to irrigate the land below. The fence in

the picture is constructed to form the upper limit of the


irrigation paddock.P.A.Yeomans demonstrates his system.

determined

by the relevant Keyline contour is the logical adaptation

of old mining water handling techniques to agriculture.

I once found an old contour earth drain, miles long, in

the hills near the town of San Andreas in California. It

must have been hand built by some of the “forty-niners

”to wash gold from their claim. To me it looked exactly

like a Keyline drain on my father ’s farms. As sometimes

can happen, storm rains occur when farm dams are already

full. But that ’s O. K. as the Keyline cultivation

patterns in the valleys effectively spread the width of

the moving floodwater and so decrease its velocity.

The valleys become covered with a wide sheet of slowly moving

water. Even in steep country the land won ’t erode.

Keyline ’s cheap ef ficient dam construction

and water transport systems mean that increasing grass and

crop production by irrigating from the on-farm water storage

ponds can vastly accelerate soil fertility development.

To irrigate using the Keyline systems the pipe through the

dam wall is turned on, flooding the Keyline channel

to the next dam. This channel can then be blocked with a

pegged down sheet of canvas (called a “flag

”)forcing the water to over flow the channel

and flood down the slope.

Aerial

photo of the trees on Nevallan.Using Keyline design principals

either land is cleared, or on cleared land trees are planted,

to form both windbreaks and shaded areas for livestock.

Trees are ultimately harvested and the tree belts replanted.

The patterned

cultivation spreads the water with ample consistency. The

canvas wall is then moved further along the feeder channel

to a new location and the process is repeated. Each move

takes just a few minutes. In very flat land a slightly

different system is used. Either way a person can comfortably

irrigate and control water flow rates easily exceeding

one acre-foot per hour (one mega litre per hour). The per-acre

cost of irrigation equates to simply interest cost on the

capital to create the dams and the contour channels, plus

the few minutes required for each move. There is no cheaper

form of irrigation. Keyline principles are totally against

the concept of concentrating run-off water into manufactured

disposal drains that are speci fically designed to

remove rainwater off the farm as rapidly as possible. Yet

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the supposedly safe rapid removal of water off a farm is

the basis of all current soil conservation principles. In

Australia, the driest of the world ’s continents,

such advocacy is almost criminal. Using Keyline design principals

either land is cleared, or on cleared land trees are planted,


to form both windbreaks and shaded areas for livestock.

Trees are ultimately harvested and the tree belts replanted.

The other major facet of the Keyline system involves the

soil itself. Keyline uses concepts of rapid and economical

soil fertility enhancement. As Keyline developed it became

obvious that rapid increases in soil fertility from the

substantial increase in soil biological activity, could

and should be an underlying fundamental of all farming endeavours.

The soil in Keyline philosophy is never cultivated by turning

the earth upside down. Cultivation is only undertaken using

modern versions of the forked stick of ancient agricultural

practices. The Graham Chisel Plow was used for years for

Keyline soil development until we developed, in the 1970s

an ef ficient and practical implement, capable of

effective subsoiling as well as ful filling the role

of a chisel plow. This implement reached deeper into the

soil than a chisel plough but with considerable less soil

pro file disturbance. The resulting improvement in

soil fertility, with either implement not only increases

crop yields and food production, but also simultaneously

reduces costs. Additionally, less water is required if irrigation.

For more on subsoiling see EXTRA:THE FORKED STICK AND

THE SUBSOIL PLOUGH in PRIORITY ONE Chapter 8. Soil is

never homogeneous even if it appears so. In any soil, individual

bits randomly clump together and form crumbs or aggregates.

The better the soil, the greater the quantity and mass of

aggregates within the soil. The bits in the aggregates tend

to hold together much more tightly than the assembled aggregates

hold to each other. The degree of aggregation de fines

“soil structure ”. Soil aggregates however,

can easily be broken up and destroyed by tumbling in a cement

mixer. Either wet or dry, the aggregates break up. Excessive

soil cultivation has the same effect. Land is sometimes

cultivated several times to produce a “fine

seed bed ”in which to sow. This is a mistake. It is

a harmful practice and is being abandoned. Edible crop seeds

germinate within soils when humidity levels are high and

air is available, not in water saturated soil. However,

in any crop preparation prior to planting, at least one

cultivation is required, both to loosen compacted soil and

act as a weed killing operation. The much-publicized arguments

promoting the concept of “minimum tillage ”is

primarily an argument that the weed killing cultivation

should be abandoned and herbicides be used to control weeds.

In the so-called “zero tillage ”concept, crops

are supposedly to be grown using only seed and chemicals.

Many farmers have tried zero tillage but found (as one might

expect)it doesn ’t work. The shape and the size of

the aggregates in soil vary considerably. They are typically

the size of very small pebbles. The spaces between the aggregates

(called pores)can fill up with air and water. If the

aggregates hold together well and resist crushing, and have

a good general shape so that the pores form nice little

connecting channels, then the soil is said to have a good

“structure ”. The tiny fibrous roots of

plants and grasses love to meander down through the maze

of passages in a well-structured soil, hunting for nutrients.

All those little pores and channels have the ability to

hold water. The volume held is termed the “field

capacity ”. Field capacity is de fined as the

measure of a soil ’s capacity to retain water for

plant use. Retention is a critical factor so field

capacity is usually considered as the volume of water retained

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in the soil a couple of days after heavy soaking rain. It

is what is retained after excess water has had time to drain

away. Field capacity determines how long soil life can function

and operate ef ficiently before another rain shower

becomes essential. Rich, humus-laden soil has excellent


field capacity. Poor soil has very little. Sand has

almost none. Organic farming and Keyline farming practices

massively increase field capacity, thereby decreasing

rainfall and irrigation requirements. To initiate the soil

building process in Keyline (and in any natural fertility

enhancing process), it is first necessary to grow

a “crop ”of almost any form of vegetation. That

crop dies, drops litter, or sheds root matter, which in

turn decomposes to become soil organic matter and ultimately

stable humic acid. The crop need not necessarily have accepted

commercial value. It only needs to be voluminous and readily

decomposable. The use of limited quantities of chemical

fertilizers, such as lime or superphosphate, to stimulate

the volume or mass of that initial crop is, unlike strict

organic farming mandates, perfectly acceptable in Keyline

development, but only in the first year. After that,

chemical fertilizers must be avoided to ensure a rapid increase

in active soil life. It is acknowledged that ef ficient

biological soil development processes are impossible with

continuing high chemical use. If not constituting the first

crop, then grasses and legumes should be utilized in the

second growth phase. This second crop has de finite

commercial value. It can be eaten off periodically, or it

can be regularly forage harvested. Keyline concepts beginning

in the early 1950s have consistently advocated the overstocking

of con fined grazing areas for short periods such

as a few days, then moving the stock animals onto a new

area to produce a constantly decomposing mass of root matter.

This procedure is discussed in Chapter 8: HOW WE CREATE

FERTILE SOIL TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING. This same procedure

has just recently been adopted and promoted as “cell

grazing ” or “rotational grazing ”by the

new “holistic ” agricultural consultants. Cell

grazing concepts however, form only part of the broader

concepts of soil fertility enhancement. The development

and enrichment of fertile soil are processes that have been

known for centuries. Keyline soil enrichment systems merely

streamline the process. Organic farmers are usually familiar

with the general techniques. In Keyline the soil building

process is accelerated by subsoiling with an implement that

guarantees minimum soil layer disturbance. This is then

coupled with rotational grazing and, ideally, with low cost

irrigation. The objective in Keyline is to always make the

creation of healthy fertile soil a pro fitable endeavour

for the farmer. There are several facets of Keyline. Over

the years since its inception many have been adopted singularly

and have proved pro fitable even in isolation. Farmers

have adopted Keyline layouts for rainwater collection, storage,

and irrigation,

Graham Plow especially built for a Queensland farmer. It

was 69 feet wide,and believed to be the largest plow in

the world at the time (1955). (from THE CHALLENGE OF LANDSCAPE

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( ) (
.P,A. Yeomans 1958.)
especially

following the successful trials on Keyline techniques by

Sydney University at their McGarvie Smith Animal Husbandry

experimental farm at Badgery ’s Creek NSW in the 1960s.


The University very successfully promoted the Keyline concepts

as a form of “water harvesting ”. Although Badgery

’s Creek is in the same county as Yobarnie and Nevallan,

the soil types are not absolutely identical, but the University

found the bene fits indeed were. Here in Australia

I am often asked, “Have Keyline concepts been taken

up by many farmers?”. Yes they have. Over the last

fifty years I have seen Australian agriculture change

dramatically. Many of the facets of Keyline have now become

“conventional ”agriculture in this country.

We see Keyline concepts and philosophies adopted everywhere.

We see it in the establishment of tree belts, the design

and location of farm dams, the general use of contour drains,

not to supposedly prevent erosion, but to convey water to

and from farm dams and to flood irrigate from these

drains. We see it in the widespread adoption of non- inversion

tillage practices with the widespread use of chisel ploughs

and the heaver subsoiling ploughs developed from them. We

also see farmers minimizing or often eliminating their use

and reliance on agricultural chemicals. This change has

come despite considerable resistance by the Australian soil

conservation establishment to most of the concepts of Keyline

thinking. It is a marketing reality that big money talks.

In consequence, and by a variety of means, government agencies

everywhere are coerced by the agrochemical companies into

listening to and accepting almost as gospel, the promotional

material the companies produce. Most governments now accept

the fabricated concept that bene ficial agriculture

totally relies on and is dependent on, high chemical inputs.

Such indoctrination unfortunately prevents both the enrichment

of the world ’s soils and the entrapment of carbon

dioxide into them. In addition to their use in agriculture,

Keyline topographical concepts have been included in several

university architectural and town planning courses in Australia,

the concept being that the layout of large-scale subdivisions

and even whole towns could be planned based on the concepts.

Keyline concepts and designs are becoming increasingly widespread

as time goes by. Professor Stuart B. Hill, Ph. D. , who

holds the Foundation Chair of Social Ecology at the University

of Western Sydney, and Martin Mulligan, a lecturer in that

faculty, and who is also editor of the journal Ecopolitics:Thoughts

and Action, recently co-wrote an excellent Australian historical

book Ecological Pioneers . In discussing my father and the

concepts involved in Keyline designs, they say:- “Despite

its marginalisation by conventional agriculturists, Yeomans

’ approach to ecological design was, as mentioned

above, one of the main sources of inspiration for the development

of “Permaculture ”. The birth of this movement

dates back to 1972 when Bill Mollison –a psychology

lecturer and well-known “identity ”at the University

of Tasmania, and David Holmgren –a student in the

Environmental Design Course at the College of Advanced Education

in Hobart, began an unlikely but highly productive collaboration.

The extroverted Mollison has gone on to establish an international

reputation as the “father ”of Permaculture;

giving inadequate credit to Holmgren and virtually none

at all to Yeomans. Holmgren ’s story is certainly

less well known, but of great importance in tracing the

lineage of ideas that have manifested themselves in Permaculture

design practices. ” Keyline practices, once implemented,

effectively eliminate all soil erosion. The “battle

against soil erosion ”, the concept of “soil

conservation ”, and the costly bureaucratic industry

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y y
these buzzwords have created, become irrelevant and unnecessary.

Keyline, like classic organic farming, is a soil creation

system. It is not a soil conservation system at all. Soil

conservation is a negative term and implies merely delaying

some inevitable future situation where apparently all the


World ’s soil will be gone. The Keyline system as

originally conceived was not designed to produce organic

food, nor was it designed to assist the mitigation of Global

Warming. It was designed to develop poor land into good

land, and it was designed to make farming pro fitable

in the quickest most ef ficient way. To me, Keyline

became important in relation to Global Warming and organic

farming because it was a tenet of Keyline philosophy that

the best path to achieve its objectives was via the creation

of highly fertile soil. And fertile soil is humus-rich soil,

and forming humus consumes huge quantities of carbon dioxide.

Although Keyline concepts were never designed with the prevention

of Global Warming in mind, I believe that the widespread

adoption of Keyline principles is probably the most practical

and pro fitable change that agriculture should embrace

to achieve that worldwide imperative.

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