Duxton Vineyards is a large-scale vineyard and winemaking business in the Murray Darling region of NSW, with approximately 2500Ha of planted vineyard area. It is also currently the largest vineyard in Australia to be certified as sustainable under Freshcare’s Sustainable Winegrowing Australia’s certification.
Sustainability is the cornerstone of the Duxton Vineyards culture, as Environmental Manager Dylan Klingbiel explains:
“We irrigate at approximately 120 L/s direct from the Darling River. We rely on this waterway, so it only makes sense that our water extraction systems need to protect the river, protect native fish and protect our pumping infrastructure. Australian rivers are renown for poor water quality, especially the Darling, even more so now, during and following flood events.
In April 2022, we installed AWMA Fish Screens on two of our pumping stations. The screens are self-cleaning, so suddenly, we significantly reduced our need to backflush the system. Early analysis of performance has shown that we will save approximately 15 million litres of water a year (1.3% reduction of total water volume), in reduced water use from what was normally required for backflushing and the subsequent energy savings for not having to pump that water. This translates to a reduction in approximately two tonnes of CO2 equivalents of emissions through the reduction in energy usage. Also, labour savings, prior to installing AWMA Fish Screens, cleaning of field filters was required on a regular basis, now, it’s rarely required at all.
Our key driver was to protect fish and the waterways we rely upon. Now, having proven that fish screens are a ‘win for the environment AND a win for us’ we are in the process of ordering more!”
Duxton Vineyard retrofitted AWMA’s self-propelled, self-cleaning cylinder screens with 2mm aperture onto existing pump retrieval systems. AWMA’s self-propelled model uses the velocity of the pump flow to drive the mechanical, brush cleaning system. This operation ensures the screen surface remains clear of debris for increased efficiencies, pump and filtration protection and delivery of a higher water quality, while protecting aquatic life.
Automated models are also available for powered sites.
Brush-cleaned cylinder screens are designed and manufactured by AWMA under a licensing agreement with Intake Screens, Inc.
