Lloyd Polkinghorne, The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper

Last week Deniliquin hosted a Federal Senate Committee on The Multi-Jurisdictional Management And Execution Of The Murray-Darling Basin Plan. In layman’s terms, the Australian Federal Government is considering taking over all things water, essentially excluding the states from decision making.

Kirstin Nicholson. “I have a special interest in the work that’s gone on in Victorian health, particularly around the ‘Safer Care Victoria’, and I think that’s moving all of us in a much better and safer direction. Also, I like that the governing bodies are really local. They know their patients, they know their people and they know the community needs. And then they hold us to account to deliver it," Bernadette Loughnane, the new CEO of Cohuna District Hospital.

Kirstin Nicholson. A sketch of the Koondrook township has been gifted to the Barham Koondrook Historical Society (BKHS). The sketch, a pen line drawing by renowned Australian artist, Kenneth Jack, was presented to the society by Ken Guskich on Wednesday, May 5 ... The artist, Kenneth Jack, was born in 1924 and spent his life painting, drawing and exhibiting across Australia and around the world.

Kirstin Nicholson. Cohuna business, AWMA, opened its doors to the public last month providing an insight into what the business does ... Fish exclusion screens, penstocks, water control gates and trash screens are just some of AWMA’s products, each of which, is unique. Each is designed, engineered and manufactured specifically for the customer, the site, and for each application, in-house, in the industrial estate right here in Cohuna.

Kirstin Nicholson. It has been a flurry of turtle activity around the district over the past couple of months as broad-shelled turtles nest, and eggs hatch. Graham Stockfeld from Turtles Australia returned to the area recently to record data on turtle sightings, nest locations and condition ... Barapa Country Elders were actively involved in locating turtle nests in the Gunbower Forest on this visit.

The ACCC has been touring the basin disseminating their findings from reviews into the now nearly $2 billion unregulated water trading scheme. The ACCC stated that water trading has its origins in informal arrangements between neighbouring farmers, where one farmer’s excess water could be transferred to a neighbour. This does seem like a logical arrangement, trading between farmers in existing irrigation districts. The same historical irrigation districts that were regulated within a similar geographical footprint.

"Could we have come to the end of wars? Could we be the first civilisation to not have enemies? To not have something, someone else wants?"