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Govt urged to buy Murray-Darling properties

By environment reporter Sarah Clarke

Posted August 8, 2008 00:26:00
Updated August 8, 2008 07:28:00

The Federal Government is being urged to buy properties such as 'Toorale' on the Darling River, to help protect the river system. (ABC: Clyde Agriculture)

A new plan put together by the Conservation Foundation could potentially be the answer to the Murray-Darling river's ongoing water issues.

The Foundation says the Federal Government should buy up properties in the upper Basin and get the water flowing downstream to address the immediate crisis and save the lower lakes.

The plan involves the Government purchasing six properties on the Darling River that are all on the market. All up, these properties could return 300,000 megalitres to the Murray-Darling system.

Amy Hankinson from the Inland Rivers Network says with the Federal and state Governments now looking to buy up water to return to the environment, here lies a perfect opportunity.

"It really is a golden opportunity for the Commonwealth to turn promises into action and send some fresh water down into the system and to our thirsty rivers and wetlands," she said.

"And the best part of this is this will keep giving in years to come every time it does rain... freshwater will stay in the system for our environment and our wetlands."

Scientists say 400,000 megalitres of water is needed by the end of spring to avoid irreversible ecological damage in the lower lakes and the Coorong.

David Paton from the University of Adelaide agrees this plan will help.

"It's a starting point but the bottom line for managing the river is that one has got to fix what I think are the fundamental issues here," he said.

"[Those issues are that] we have got to get an allocation for irrigators, human use and the environment sorted that enables the environment to get its fair share and needed share of that water to guarantee its long term sustainability."

'Time to sell'

Darling Farms, south of Bourke in western New South Wales, is one of six properties along the Darling River on the market or open to offers. It has access to 23,000 megalitres a year.

Others include Cubbie Station, Australia's largest cotton farm on the Queensland-New South Wales border, which can hold as much water as Sydney Harbour.

After 40 years on the land and a decade of drought, the Cole family, who owns Darling Farms, has decided to sell.

Over summer, there has been some rain, a flow has returned to the river, the storage dams are full and the property has been put on the market.

Ian Cole, the owner and manager of the business, says it is sad to sell.

"It's always sad ... to lose something that you're used to," he said. "Obviously all our children have grown up here but obviously life changes and you have to change with it.

"So at the moment we have a really nice wheat crop of 5,000 acres in the ground and we've got full water storages."

The price tag he wants is around $60 million, but it is all about the location.

Mr Cole does not mind who buys, he says he just wants the best price.

"We didn't anticipate the Government might be interested in buying an enterprise like this to return water to the river but if that's what they want to do we don't have a problem with it," he said.

Tags: drought, environment, conservation, dams-and-reservoirs, government-and-politics, federal-government, rivers, water, australia, nsw, qld, sa, vic

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Comments (40)

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MO:

08 Aug 2008 9:24:37am

IF it happens:

The budget to buy these properties should include a big and ongoing budget to manage woody weeds, feral goats, pigs, cats and dogs, plus other feral weeds.

Unless the Feds are going to become pastroalists?

A better idea is for the water entitlements to be bought and the money given to the current owners to compensate them for the destructipon of the value of the properties.

Why is the Federal government not buying up each and every water entitlement as it comes on the market? Can anyone think of a better use of the $22B surplus.

KEVIN - GET ON WITH IT!

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Eric:

08 Aug 2008 9:35:06am

Excellent use of the surplus too.

The vendors will no doubt re-invest in income producing assets, shares etc. so these purchases will have a zero inflationary affect, better than tax cuts and a splurge on plasma TVs.

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Kylie:

08 Aug 2008 9:38:17am

Fair enough if the government wants to buy these places (and should do if the owners are offered a fair price!) and return the water back to the murray darling system, great idea.

I think that consideration also needs to be made about the impact on the economy if this happens. There is so much in the News about Cubbie Station and how much water it uses but does anyone realise how much they contribute to our economy? This contribution would have to be equalled by something else in order for the national economy to reamin the same.

One other thing we could be looking at is the upstream storage on the rivers, although currently they are all approx 21% that is still a lot of water, couldn't that be used down stream too?

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Si:

08 Aug 2008 9:42:33am

I don't think there's going to be many other people wanting to pay that much money for a property that's pretty much doomed.

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Emma:

08 Aug 2008 9:46:20am

Yes buy backs are a priority when it comes to reducing stress on the Murray Darling system.

The State Governments, which in some cases like the Gwydir allocated more water for irrigation than the average flow of the river, should also be putting money into the buy backs.

And compelling irrigators to install tamper-proff meters on pumps.

And increasing the price of irrigation water by 10% a year for the next two decades to drive the industry away from wasteful flood irrigtation and shallow dams, into trickle irrigation and dams that are designed to prevent evaporation.

The Comonwealth Government should also convene a Royal Commission into systemic water theft, mismanagement and corruption across the Murray Darling.

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Billy Bob Hall:

08 Aug 2008 9:47:07am

As if this idea is going to work. They could not even ban plastic bags or even save the whales form the Japanese.

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JoDo:

08 Aug 2008 9:47:07am

The chance for the government to buy the 6 properties holding the Murray water should be leapt upon, without ANY hesitation. Cubbie station in particular has long been blamed for part of the state of the murray, and if these properties are all for sale, NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT.
The government has pledged millions - billions?- to "saving the murray" but to date nothing seems to have been done. This would surely show it IS being acted upon.
If they fail to act on this, massive protests must be launched until public pressure forces them to buy and transform these properties into National Parks to preserve the wetlands.
BTW, what is being done with all of the GST funds?? No excuse not to use some of that money for something this worthwhile.

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Tim C.:

08 Aug 2008 9:47:15am

Why doesn't the ACF put their money where their mouth is, buy the properties themselves, return the water to the system and create some models of ecologically sound land management?
That way, there is no drain on the public purse and the ACF can lead by example, by taking responsibility for their policies.

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James:

08 Aug 2008 9:47:58am

Maybe the problem is all the rice,grape,cotton,citrus farms who all scramble/fight and scream for every drop the can get out of the river. They spend millions on irigation systems so they can export wine into Europe.

People are having babies in toilets, old people are eating dog food and young people sleep on the streets but we find 35 Billion for this problem because dodgy developers and planners give licences away.

If they were not such generous political donors they would be in trouble.

The Answer? Open the books of all political parties

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michael g:

08 Aug 2008 10:01:23am

One question.
Have theses properties "ever" received their water allocation and if the Darling Downs property had had any wate worth having in the last 10 years, then they would not be selling up.
Empty rhetoric from the Conservation Foundation I reckon.
They probably just want to make a noise.

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Dave:

08 Aug 2008 10:10:54am

Better still, buy Cubby Station and all the related cotton farmers.

They do more damage to the enviroment through their use of insecticides, poor water management, and by disturbing the natural flood plains.

It has been proven that they are uneconomocal and should be located up in the Argyle where there is sufficient rain fall to maintain them;(if we need them at all).

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BRK:

08 Aug 2008 10:43:55am

$60 million for Darling Farms' 23,000 megalitres - assuming the same dollar/water ration, the full 300,000 megalitres from the six properties would cost $780 million.

Is that good value? Maybe, but ONLY if the water STAYS in the river system.

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John:

08 Aug 2008 10:53:42am

The Government should not make a public decision to buy, as it will increase the price. How does one value water rights that will never be their stated amount again, because of reduced rainfall. The small percentage drop in rainfall caused by climate change makes a much bigger drop in the runnoff (Which is the excess over that needed where the rain falls), and therefore in river flows. Climate change means that river flows will never be the same again. Who should carry the cost - The Community who never sold the rights in the first place(ie government), or the users. In dryland farming and most investments it is the users who carry the risk of environment change. Why is irrigated farming any different.

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John:

08 Aug 2008 11:02:58am

Oh for goodness sake!

Anyone would think that we'd never had a drought before and that the Murray had never stopped flowing before.

More than 25% of the Murray's flow comes from upstream of Hume Dam (i.e. in the Snowy Mountains). We've had semi El Nino conditionsfrom 2002 to 2007 so that meant less snow. Then some utterly stupid governments flushed a heap of water down the Snowy River where it benefited no-one rather than direct it through the Murray system.

If anyone wants to bleat about the Snowy needing water recall what I said at the start - we've had droughts before - and that means that flow in the Snowy would have been low.

One of the best things the federal government could do is demand that water from the new Melbourne desalination plant be able to be pumped north over the Great Dividing Range to the Goulburn River so that it could flow into the Murray.

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Mr White:

08 Aug 2008 11:05:04am

The government, regardless of who is in charge, is always slow to react to anything environmental. There is all this talk about money to save the Murray Darling basin but has anything really been done yet. Lots of discussions and perhaps even some baseline studies but has any real step been taken to increase environmental flows and improve river water quality and quantity and solve acidification issues in the lower lakes?

Buying up these properties is a good first step. Yes economically this means that land that was once used to employ people, produce products and bring in taxes will be rendered economically useless. This land however should be reverted to its natural state, which would improve groundwater quality and biodiversity. Environmental assets that will pay us back for years to come in many ways which aren't immediately obvious to an economically driven government, or ways that they will likely be credited for in many years to come.

Governments, state and federal, are driven by voters demands which in the past have traditionally been unemployment rates, healthcare and other economically driven issues. If however environmental issues start getting more attention and people start to vote one party in over another due to there environmental pledges and actions then these issues will be given more attention.

It has only been in recent years that the government have realised that surface water and groundwater resources are inextricably linked. This has meant that both resources have been seperately allocated in the past and the system is suffering due to this. Most people, politicians included now realise that the river is over allocated, regardless of current drought conditions and it really is about time the government did something about this instead of just talking...

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Wendy Bunce:

08 Aug 2008 11:05:27am

The whole idea of making Australia's fresh water resources into a mere tradeable commodity, is severely flawed & is very dangerous, because it pits the ruthless power of human economic wealth, directly against the very vulnerable & easily wrecked, environmental fragility of all our precious natural resources. There is a very necessary option for government, & that is to immediately ban all water wasteful practices, such as flood irrigation from rivers & from out of the ground for growing any & all highly unsustainable, water insatiable cash crops. The concept of knowingly continuing to use up our dwindling fresh water resources, just to keep on intentionally growing crops & businesses purely for export profits, is unforgivable & deadly.

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P Spencer:

08 Aug 2008 11:16:21am

Interesting how we treat each other. All the farmers who were locked up and paid nothing for the loss of 107 milliom Hect or 19% Australian farming land some lost 20,000 / 40,000 acres - they got nothing but run out of business. YET contributed in that lock up 87.5 million tons of Green Carbon which offset the entire pollution produced by the production of energy from the Coal fired Power stations becuase the Government had to meet its International Kyoto Obligations for emissions - so on that principle do not pay them, Cubbie Station and the rest of these properties just take them expropriate......do not pay them one cent because if the Commonwealth does that might set a presedent of Government morality.

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Alan Hill:

08 Aug 2008 11:16:52am

Prime Minister Rudd take this golden opportunity and run with it as the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

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andy :

08 Aug 2008 11:32:54am

buy all the property they can along the river then allow it to rejuvinate to natural (well as natural as can be) bushland, to act as a buffer from all the other pastoral lands that allow nutrient runnoff to the river.
the water saved from irrigation should be allowed to flow and at the same time purchase as many other water allocations as possible.
it is also essential that any withdrawl pastrolists make from the system is monitored and any illegal withdrawl of water should be heavily fined and include loss of water rights as punishment.
list the properties purchased as a special nature reserve allowing camping etc so families can enjoy a renewed river
ANDY

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Long John:

08 Aug 2008 11:33:16am

I totally agree that the Feds need to work with the affected Farmers in the Short to Medium term re some sort of compromised & compsensatory package to alleviate the lack of adequate flow water, that is now deminishing the Murray Darling's Economic & Environmental Future.
The Long term future of our down-stream river systems, could have a totally different outcome, especially when taken into account the latest modelling data that indicates a possible rapid melt-water of all, or most of the Polar Ice, over a relatively short period of time. This increase in sea levels, will have a sufficiently & significantly large impact on down-stream eco-systems, yet to be fully realised. This subject is yet to be played out publicly in the debate, by more qualified and informed parties
Not yet Explored, sufficiently

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roger b.:

08 Aug 2008 11:43:42am

This is a National Crisis and after 11-12 years of sticking their heads in the sand, something needs to happen NOW. The water hogs(theives)up in QLD,NSW and VIC. should all have to release 10% of water holdings back into the river system at the same time to flush out and put some water into the river. Someone should put a hole in CUBBY Station large dams, who want to EXPAND their farming while farmers down the line go broke. The owners must be a protected species.

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Colin:

08 Aug 2008 11:45:33am

The government and any other concerned organisations AND members of the public should give money to Bush Heritage Australia (http://www.bushheritage.org.au/). They can buy these properties and put the proper management systems in place to maintain and improve their environmental benefits.

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Karen:

08 Aug 2008 12:03:25pm

Please please please let this happen RIGHT NOW! The Government can have my tax cuts back if it'll help! I find it difficult to believe we've done such dreadful things to this beautiful country.

My father (very old school) insists that Aboriginal people can't be considered the "true" owners of this country because they didn't do anything with it (ie development). Well, just look at what we've done.

Thie is another "Sorry" situation I feel - we must all take some responsibility for the decisions and wrongs of the past, say "Sorry" to this great country and fix the Murray-Darling before it dies.

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Govt urged to buy Murray-Darling properties

'Time to sell'

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Comments (40)

MO:

Prof S:

MO:

Hugh Jampton:

Eric:

Kylie:

Hugh Jampton:

MO:

david:

Si:

Sam Guest:

Emma:

Wendy Bunce:

Billy Bob Hall:

JoDo:

Tim C.:

Prof S:

Darren:

Hugh Jampton:

Skewer:

James:

Bertrand:

michael g:

MO:

Dave:

MO:

Dave:

Wendy Bunce:

BRK:

John:

John:

Mr White:

Wendy Bunce:

P Spencer:

Alan Hill:

andy :

Long John:

roger b.:

Colin:

Karen:

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