Village Settlement: Holder

Named after Sir Frederick W Holder, Member of Parliament and state Treasurer at the time.

Holder was established on 13 March 1894. The Waikerie Station homestead and other station buildings were on Holder's land and the settlers were quick to utilise them for their school and other purposes. Like the other village settlements, Holder suffered from attempting to utilise inappropriate pumps for their irrigation system. Their first pump could not pump to a great enough height to be effective. In 1895, a second pump was purchased. It too was a low lift pump and it is thought that the settlers placed this pump above the first and attempted to pump to twice the height by pumping water from the from the first to the second and then to the plantings. The success of this method is unknown, but the villagers purchased a high lift pump in 1896. This pump, however, was placed on a cliff that was subject to erosion and in 1899 the pump had to be moved. By this time, the Holder settlement had spent too much money on inefficient pumps and was in financial difficulties. The Holder villagers had little knowledge of irrigation methods and only pumped water to their plantations three or four times a year, providing an amount of water on which the fruit trees and other crops could not thrive. Holder's population declined steadily and the village settlement ceased in July 1903. The land was resurveyed and blocks leased to individuals. It became part of the Waikerie Irrigation Area in 1916.