A plan to have community at the forefront of co-design was the feature of Western Murray Land Improvement Group’s (WMLIG) Reconnecting River Country Program (RRCP) Wakool presentation.
The RRCP is part of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism. NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) states the project is focusing on relaxing or removing some of the constraints or physical barriers impacting the delivery of water for the environment.
The project is separate to the constraint’s bypasses that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority currently seek, but it may be worth noting that many of the same rivers are included.
Roger Knight, Executive Officer of WMLIG, said it was a unique approach to community driven design. “It took our organisation 16 months to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the New South Wales Government to bring an element of community co-design to the process and we finally got it.
“It is all about gathering as much feedback from those who will be impacted from environmental watering and just as importantly, finding out what people would like to see in the landscape.”
The facilitators for the night were Environmental Consultants, Dan Hutton and Dr John Conalin.
Dan Hutton was originally from the UK before working in the grazing industry for 20 years in remote northern Australia before his current life in land and environmental management and community engagement.
Dr John Conalin has more than a decade of international research experience working in different fields of land and water management. John grew up on a farm on the Wakool River near Deniliquin and is passionate about fish, water and communities.
Dan has seen many government programs implemented with varying results.
“It needs communities to pull together to do it. “If you can pull together as a united team, then you can make a difference.
“We’re here to give you information, you know your landscape, you know your communities, you know how the system works better than anybody.
“So, we’re not trying to tell you how to make the system work, what we’re trying to do is interpret what the government has provided you with, so that you can understand it fully and identify little bits in it that may be of use to you and the bits that are incorrect.”
During the night, attendees were walked through the RRCP mapping tool. The maps are generated through computer modelling for various flow options from 15,000 megalitres per day up to 40,000ML/D. The map modelling is run to a static height and so may vary to what landholders experience at a real-world flow volume. Static height is essentially the worst-case scenario, i.e. if you held 40,000ML/D for 6 months filling everything up completely.
Landholders are now needed to ground truth the information provided in the modelling. Do the maps reflect what your lived experience tells you?
Concerns were raised on the night that the maps are generated in isolation for different stretches of the rivers using just flow targets for downstream of Yarrawonga. Real-world realities of influences from other tributaries do not seem to be captured and could influence inundation levels.
The RRCP is an ongoing process that will take significant time and engagement if community wish to help shape the outcomes.
The Mid Murray natural constraints have been highlighted for over 10 years as the limitation to the delivery of basin plan volumes.
To be involved and have your voice captured, attend the workshops, complete a RRCP survey on the WMLIG website and register for updates on the DPIE RRCP website.
This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 25 August 2022.
