 Development and promotion of the MIA led to large scale settlement on land described by Oxley 100 years earlier as " country which , for barrenness and desolation , can I think , have no equal . " Settlers came from a diverse range of backgrounds and nationalities . In particular , the Italian community prospered in the Area , owning nearly half of all the farms around Griffith by 1954 . Later , further irrigation was developed for areas in the Murray valley starting with the <unk> Irrigation District in 1932 , then the <unk> and <unk> Irrigation Districts in 1938 , the <unk> Irrigation District in 1939 and the <unk> Irrigation Area in 1942 . The Coleambally Irrigation Area , established in 1968 , was the last of the major government @-@ sponsored irrigation developments in New South Wales . 
