Water

Kirstin Nicholson. Mick Farrant’s dairy farm is on Flannery’s Road, McMillans and two thirds of his 1,100-acre property is underwater. Excess water from Pyramid and Bullock Creeks has inundated the farm. “It’s a big job moving cattle, it’s just a massive undertaking to shift a whole herd and get set up for them somewhere else. You don’t do that in five minutes,” he said.

It’s been over 10 years since a 5-year moratorium was placed on Murray crayfishing by NSW authorities for our stretch of the Murray River. Sadly, now it seems that Murray cray populations are at risk, not from fishing, but from poor water quality. Dissolved oxygen has fallen to 0.2 in the Murray at Barham and thousands of Murray cray have walked to the edges of the river from Echuca through to Swan Hill.

The river continues to rise at Wilcannia and is now running at just over 10 metres with a flow of 30,043 ML/day. Lake Woytchugga is continuing to fill and the Talyawalka is flowing at 6.7 metres. The river is running at 101,727 ML/day at Bourke and over 135,214 ML/day at Walgett, indicating that there is a lot more to come.

Food security is a growing problem for Australian families, according to a new state government report, with remote communities the worst affected. The Food production and supply in NSW report, from the NSW Legislative Assembly’s Committee on Environment and Planning, found food supply disruption was a driver of food insecurity, and that remote communities were unfairly burdened by the problem.

Releases from Hume Dam have today increased to 75 gigalitres (GL) per day, up from 50 GL per day yesterday in response to overnight inflows that peaked at 100 GL a day. Further increases are likely with a renewed inflow peak expected later today. Combined with inflows from the Kiewa River – downstream of Hume Dam – the Murray River is expected to approach or possibly exceed the major flood level at Albury in coming days.

In our immediate area, we are lucky: the floods have been and gone while others across the State and beyond are still living with the uncertainty and dangers of rising river levels. For our region, it’s on to the recovery stage.  The Times visited the Baringhup Caravan Park last weekend to view the damage following a massive release of water from Cairn Curran reservoir.

Somebody better tell mother nature to get with the program as Koondrook-Barham’s peak was exceeded seven days early. The expected peak for Koondrook-Barham remains unchanged on official channels at an expected 6.2m. Mother nature had other ideas with a rainfall event on Monday, October 24 pushing the river to an eye watering 6.210m just one centimetre short of the highest recorded on NSW Water, the 1917 flood reaching 6.223m.

More than three times the average October rainfall has already fallen in Narrandera this month with more than 100mm drenching Narrandera in the first three weeks of October. The deluge has caused chaos with many roads being closed.

Recent rainfall and flooding has resulted in further calls to raise the Wyangala and Burrinjuck Dams walls. Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack has reaffirmed his support for raising the Wyangala Dam wall after the Prime Minister and NSW Premier visited Forbes last week.

Kirstin Nicholson. Pat and Michelle Quinn’s dairy farm at Mincha West is under real threat of flooding. The 700 head dairy property sits about 3km from Flannery’s flume, and the water coming out of Kow Swamp backs up and flows over the top of the property ... In 2011, the farm was completely inundated – and Pat is predicting this flood will be the same.

Kendall Jennings. Amidst the sound of helicopters, drones and light aircraft, the community of Kerang gathered to do whatever was needed to protect vital infrastructure as the Loddon River, Nine Mile Creek and Pyramid Creek water levels rose. Earthmoving machinery was used, along with sandbags to contain floodwater away from major roads, however, some efforts did not survive the floodwater onslaught.

When viewed together the 30 major dams across the Murray-Darling Basin are currently at 101% capacity and  hold an unprecedented volume of water in storage ... At the Authority’s invitation, the  South Australian River Murray Commissioner, Mr Richard Beasley SC, attended the meeting. He provided an update on his appointment to advocate for the health of the River Murray, Lower Lakes and Coorong.

The Murray–Darling Basin continues to experience widespread flooding in some areas, prompting an increased risk of water quality issues like low-oxygen blackwater as temperatures increase. Governments and water authorities are working together to monitor the unfolding conditions which may see low-oxygen blackwater and blue-green algae emerge that can lead to fish deaths and increased water treatment.

For rural and regional communities, especially those crying out for dams for flood and drought mitigation for decades, Budget Paper Number 2 from the Commonwealth 2022-2023 Budget makes depressing reading.

As at 26 October, the flooding continues at Undera and, with no authority prepared to take responsibility for the levees, it's left to the community - somehow, sometime - to repair the multiple levee breaks.

New inundation maps and a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions have been created as part of dedicated webpage on the highest River Murray flows in almost 50 years. Flood awareness, infrastructure and projected flow maps allow residents to look at potential inundation and check if their property is likely to be affected.

Emergency Management Victoria, the lead agency in Victoria during an emergency event, made the decision on Monday, 17 October that a levee needed to be constructed in Echuca to protect as much of the township as possible. Based on the flood modelling available in the Incident Control Centre in Bendigo, Emergency Management Victoria had 48 hours to put the levee in place

With wet conditions saturating large areas of crop production land across Victoria and Tasmania, a GRDC project is identifying ways to maximise crop performance when waterlogging occurs ... Applying nitrogen can help crops recover after being waterlogged, and looking at where waterlogging occurs when it is happening can help growers to plan improved drainage to prevent future waterlogging.

A 10 per cent increase in supplementary water access licences has been allocated for NSW Murray irrigators, taking the total for the 2022/23 water year to a record 110 per cent of entitlement. Minister for Lands and Water Kevin Anderson said the exceptionally wet conditions have resulted in a major increase in unregulated flows in the Murray which means there is an unprecedented amount of water in the system.

Tamworth and Peel Valley residents will soon be able to have their say on the New Dungowan Dam and Pipeline Environmental Impact Statement which will go on display by the end of October. Minister for Lands and Water and Member for Tamworth Kevin Anderson said this signifies the NSW Government is getting on with the job of building the New Dungowan Dam and called on the Commonwealth to reaffirm its funding in next week’s budget.

The East coast of the island is swollen with water – the bulging rivers purging to sea, or finding relief beyond their banks, the waters spewing and sprawling across paddocks and swirling down streets. The anxiety of sandbagging in the race to beat mother nature is real. The threat of the unknown is immense. The realisation of the brutal damage done: heartbreaking. If only we’d built more dams. Damn.