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The soil sensors were installed in a backhoe pit (1.5 m deep)

A soil pit was dug to 1.5 m depth in July 2007 and monitoring probes were installed at 0.1, 0.75 and 1.5 m depths in three columns. At each depth there were 3 time domain reflectometry probes (Campbell Scientific CS616) to measure volumetric water content, 3 gypsum blocks (Measurement Engineering Australia GBHeavy, except at 0.1 m depth were there were only 2) to measure water potential over the range -30 to -600 kPa. In addition one TCAV thermocouple probe to record soil temperature was located in the centre of the soil pit at 0.10m. In each column the time domain reflectometry and gypsum blocks were separated laterally by 20cm, each column was separated from the next by 100cm. At each depth the time domain reflectometry and gypsum blocks were separated laterally by 1 m. Sensors were installed in layers maintaining the vertical configuration of 3 columns. The pit was backfilled by hand, layer by layer, to the original bulk density. Sieved soil was packed around each probe to ensure good contact and a layer of rock-free soil of at least 3 cm around the sensors.