Member for Murray Helen Dalton said 25 dead Murray Cod were left stranded in a remnant pool barely 60 metres long in Bullatale Creek.

“Some were close to a metre in length – fish that would have taken decades to grow now gone,” she said.

While locals are pulling dead native fish from shrinking pools, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority continues to strip two billion dollars a year out of Basin communities under the Murray–Darling Basin Plan.

“So here is the question. What exactly is that two billion dollars a year being spent on?

“River health is still declining. The Lower Murray has recently been labelled critically endangered. Another fish kill has occurred in Menindee. Carp now make up around 90 percent of the biomass in parts of the system. Blue-green algae events continue to choke waterways. The Lower Lakes are artificially held at sea-level to maintain a freshwater system that was never naturally stable in that form,” she said.

“Yet the focus remains on hitting modelled water flow targets on paper. Imaginary numbers. Compliance reports. Bureaucratic milestones.

“Meanwhile native fish die. Water is stripped from productive regions. Communities lose jobs and certainty.

“If this system was working, we would see recovery. We are not seeing recovery. We are seeing collapse.

“To every organisation reading this, if you care about river health, food production and regional communities, stand with us. Sign on to support the open letter to Chris Minns and Murray Watt.

“Add your name here: https://standupforwater.lovable.app/“

Ms Dalton said the more organisations that stand behind this, the stronger the push will be.

“And to everyone else, share this post. Tag decision-makers. Send it to your industry groups. We are not going to sit back and watch our rivers die while billions are spent with no accountability,” she said.

This article appeared in Narrandera Argus, 19 February 2026.
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