This study forms part of a larger project which investigates how political, bureaucratic, and economic forces influenced the historical development of the Wakool Irrigation District and the Tullakool Irrigation Area in south–west New South Wales between 1930 and 1995. The article itself focusses on the NSW government’s Second World War rice–growing project at Wakool both as a unique exercise in itself and also to explore some historical reasons behind an important policy shift and associated fundamental changes in subsequent land– use, settlement patterns, and environmental amenity in the area.