Out here in the Victorian countryside, water is everything. The stock rely on it, the pastures depend on it, and when you’ve got several dams scattered across your property, keeping an eye on them all can feel like a full-time job.
That used to be the case for one local farming family. Every few days, they’d jump in the ute, rattle down dusty tracks, and check water levels, taste for salinity, and decide whether it was time to switch the pump on. Sometimes they’d find a header tank running low, sometimes they’d discover the water was too salty, the solar panel had been damaged and the battery not charged, and occasionally they’d realise the pump had been running longer than it needed - wasting both water and power.
That’s when they called in Civiteq.
Our team designed and installed a custom IoT monitoring and automation system, built around the Civiteq sensor range and supported by other carefully selected technologies. Solar-powered sensors now keep watch over each dam, measuring water level and salinity in real time. These readings are sent instantly to the farmer’s phone or laptop, wherever they are.
When a header tank starts to run low, the system automatically starts the pump — no need for anyone to drive out and flick a switch. If the salinity creeps up beyond safe levels, the farmer gets an alert before that water ever reaches the livestock.
Since installation, the benefits have been clear:
- Zero unexpected water shortages - thanks to real-time alerts and automated pumping.
- Healthier livestock - with consistent access to fresh, low-salinity water.
- Less waste - pumps only run when needed.
- Time back in the day - no more “dam runs” unless there’s an actual problem.
IoT isn’t just for big city projects or industrial sites. With the right design, like Civiteq’s tailored solution here, it’s a practical, powerful tool for rural operations — keeping water flowing, stock healthy, and farmers in control. writing here...