Riverina landholders unite against proposed easements

Riverina landholders gathered for a “robust” town hall meeting this week to discuss the controversial Landholder Negotiation Scheme (LNS) that would see environmental easements on riverfront properties.

Face-to-face meetings were held in Wagga Wagga and Darlington Point, with more than 100 landholders and stakeholders in attendance to learn about the LNS and receive the latest updates on the Reconnecting River Country Program.

In early October a group of farmers launched the action group Save Our River Dwellers (SORD) to advocate against the proposal that would transform their operations and demanded an extension of the consultation period and further face-to-face meetings with the department.

Spokesperson Paul Funnell said farmers had been “left in the dark” and that it was a matter of protecting landholders’ “fundamental property rights”.

Member for Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr said getting the communication right with the affected landholders was vital.

“It was a robust meeting. It’s something I have been working on for the last 18 months,” said Dr McGirr.

“A lot of landholders have the clear view that they haven’t been consulted properly.

“[The meeting] was a good chance to make sure that a large number of people were in the room and got the same information.”

Dr McGirr said affected landholders raised a range of concerns, including the impact easements may have on the value of their land and the biosecurity impacts of increased environmental flows and outside access.

They also questioned how financial institutions, which hold a large stake in many properties, would view the easements along with the preservation of stock and domestic water access licences, compliance issues and the mental health effects on the landholders.

Dr McGirr said the program might avoid water buybacks, which had the potential to improve the environmental health of the river.

“What also emerged [from the meeting] is that it may also improve the airspace management of the dams. That was valuable to know,” he said.

“But overall, the number one issue for me was that people are not keen to have easements at all.

“They’re opposed to the easements, and they’ve got a lot of questions about alternatives to having easements for this to work.”

DCCEEW Executive Director of Infrastructure Development Lisa Hingerty said it was great to hear from the landholders.

“The sessions have really focused on what we’re investigating delivering as part of the program,” Ms Hingerty said.

“Reconnecting River Country is only in the development phase.

“We’re looking at the opportunities and benefits of the program and what potential environmental flows could be released as part of the program, should it proceed to delivery.

“There have been no decisions around flow easements, no decisions around negotiations as yet, and there have been no releases of environmental water as part of the program.”

Ms Hingerty said the DCCEEW was considering three flow options.

“We’re looking at 32,000 megalitres per day, which is the limit of the water sharing plan, 36,000 megalitres per day, and 40,000 megalitres per day,” she said.

“As part of any environmental water release, we’re only looking at three to five environmental water releases over 10 years.

“During each release, we’re looking at between two to five days at the peak, up to a maximum of 20 days.”

The draft LNS will initially be used for environmental water initiatives under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, including the Gwydir Reconnecting Watercourse Country Program and the Reconnecting River Country Program in the Murrumbidgee.

It will establish a negotiation framework that can be applied to future programs across the state that propose making lasting changes to environmental flows, aimed at improving the health of wetlands and floodplains.

The Reconnecting River Country Program, a key initiative under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, aims to create healthier, functioning river systems in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys.

Due to river regulation and water extraction, rivers now connect to wetlands and floodplains less frequently than needed to maintain healthy ecosystems.

While water for the environment aims to restore this balance, constraints restrict the effective use of this water, contributing to the continued decline of the country’s health, including the species that depend on these environments for survival.

A constraint is any physical, policy, or operational barrier limiting the flow of water in river systems.

There are various flow constraints in the basin, including physical restrictions such as low-lying watercourse crossings, weirs, and levees; operational restrictions such as river operation rules and practices; or policy barriers such as existing legislation.

The Reconnecting River Country Program aims to remove these constraints, enabling the flexible use of water for the environment to increase the frequency and extent of river connections to wetlands and floodplains.

In-person engagement will continue to be rolled out over the coming 12 months. These meetings will add to the claimed 900 face-to-face engagements DCCEEW has had with landholders across the Murray and Murrumbidgee since 2021.