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Murray-Darling Basin
Commission – April 2007, E-letter No 65
Welcome to the Murray-Darling Basin monthly e-letter with reports of happenings across the Basin. Contributions are welcome. Please send items (no more than 150 words) to the editor at sam.leone@mdbc.gov.au Online html versions are available at: www.mdbc.gov.au/communications/s-scribe/eletter_menu Please feel free to pass this e-letter along to anybody who might be interested. To subscribe online go to http://mdbc.gov.au/communications/s-scribe To be removed from the mailing list, please reply to this message with “unsubscribe” in the subject heading. This newsletter currently
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Despite more good rainfall in the Upper Murray catchment in late March, inflows to streams remained relatively small, variable and short lived, according to River Murray Water. River Murray Water is the division of the Murray-Darling Basin which manages the Murray system. In its last Weekly Report for March, RMW said that although the unregulated inflow to Hume Reservoir had increased from 300 to 700 ML/day it was still very low. Flow to South Australia was reduced further from 2 300 to 2 000 ML/day. Although this slightly reduced the downstream river level at Locks 4, 5 and 6 by about 8 cm, the upstream weir pool levels remained at or near the full supply level. In consultation with South Australian government agencies, the flow to South Australia will continue to be gradually reduced over the coming weeks to about 1 300 ML/day. In early March the MDBC reported that River flows into South Australia were being reduced in response to ongoing severe drought conditions, however weir pools in the State would be maintained as close as possible to full supply level. Chief Executive Dr Wendy Craik AM said the reductions were a crucial part of a system-wide flow management plan. “Our aim is to make the best possible use of the limited resources this year while conserving precious water in upstream storages for 2007-08,” Dr Craik said. By late March the flow past Lock 1 was 1 100 ML/day and the level of the Lower Lakes had fallen another 2 cm to 0.19m AHD. Main storages levels in late March were:
S-E Australian Climate
Initiative website launched
The site was inaugurated by Dr Wendy Craik AM, Chief Executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC). The MDBC is the managing agency for SEACI which was launched early in 2006. (The address for the new website is: www.mdbc.gov.au/seaci) The other partners are: the Australian Greenhouse Office within the Department of the Environment and Water Resources; Australia’s Managing Climate Variability program; the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment; CSIRO; and the Bureau of Meteorology. “The new site will help stakeholders and members of the public to understand how climate change is affecting the south-eastern part of our continent,” Dr Craik said. “It will also create more awareness of how the SEACI investment will help us tackle these important issues by providing us with better knowledge of the causes and impacts of climate change and climate variability.” The new website includes an overview of the initiative as well as fact sheets, background papers, reports and other documents on various aspects of its operations and future plans. Dr Craik said it is important for SEACI to communicate its’ activities broadly as climate change and variability will impact on all members of the community. She noted the Bureau of Meteorology has stated that Australia and the globe are experiencing rapid climate change. Since the middle of the 20th century, Australian temperatures have, on average, risen by about 1°C with an increase in the frequency of heatwaves and a decrease in the numbers of frosts and cold days. Rainfall patterns have also changed — the northwest has seen an increase in rainfall over the last 50 years, while much of eastern Australia and the far southwest have experienced a decline. “The MDBC is proud to be collaborating with the Bureau, CSIRO and the other agencies in SEACI. This new website will be an important communications vehicle as we improve our understanding of what is happening and what needs to be done,” Dr Craik said. The address for the new website is: www.mdbc.gov.au/seaci Rigorous training
prepares MDBC vegetation assessors
The teams, which include specialist consultants and State agency representatives will assess vegetation at more than 60 randomly selected sites in catchment areas of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland including the Condamine, Ovens and Macquarie Marshes. The Sustainable Rivers Audit is an MDBC program which assesses the health of the Basin’s 23 river valleys. Auditors sample key features to provide “windows” on the health of the river ecosystem. The pilot study, being managed by the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre on behalf of the SRA will run until the end of May. Using the new protocols specially developed for the SRA, the teams will sample in-channel and near bank vegetation, including aquatic plants and vegetation in wetlands and on floodplains. Sample teams will assess tree cover and canopy health and riverine species composition and will collect information on standing dead wood, litter cover and exotic species. Seeds will be collected from floodplain wetlands to be analysed in the laboratory where the nature and extent of regeneration will be assessed - an important indicator of vegetation resilience during current adverse drought conditions. The pilot has been designed to provide Sustainable Rivers Audit team members with key information about when and how best to conduct ongoing vegetation assessment as part of a proposal to Council to adopt the new vegetation theme next year.. Other sampling programs being run by the Sustainable Rivers Audit include fish, hydrology, macroinvertebrates and physical form. For more information about any of these programs is available from SRA Senior Manager, Michael Wilson at (02) 6279-1444. Community
‘salt samplers’ boost catchment health program
SaltCHECK Project Manager Emily Maher said community participation was vital for the project. “The valuable information collected by ‘salt samplers’ will help target catchment health improvement programmes and inform management decisions,” she said. The project is monitoring salinity, temperature, turbidity and pH of surface and ground water. “SaltCHECK is part of the Murray CMA’s long term commitment to working with the community for outcomes that will lead to improvement in the health of our waterways” she said. The information gathered by SaltCHECK will be used by Catchment Management Authorities to plan and target salinity and water management programmes within their catchments. SaltCHECK is linked with other projects run across the Murray-Darling Basin. SaltCHECK delivers on the Australian Government’s 2004 election commitment to commit $20 million to identify and manage underground salt deposits in the Murray-Darling Basin. The project is managed by the Bureau of Rural Sciences. For more information call 03 5880 1408 or go to www.murray.cma.nsw.gov.au/ Murrumbidgee
‘Envirowise’ program gets results
Since the program began in 2000, the Authority says more than 1100 farms in the area have completed the program, building the capacity of landholders to improve water and natural resource management in the area. The Authority (CMA) says this success was achieved in partnership with Murrumbidgee Irrigation and the local community. Chair Mr Lee O’Brien said the Authority, through the NSW and Australian Government’s National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality funding, has pledged over $5 million for the program. “This funding is targeted to help improve regional water use efficiency, reduce drainage flows to Murrumbidgee River wetlands, improve water quality and minimise downstream flooding at a regional scale. “The Murrumbidgee CMA’s involvement in the project has resulted in a more co-ordinated and consistent approach to natural resource management in the MIA,” said Mr O’Brien. For more information go to www.murrumbidgee.cma.nsw.gov.au More fishway
success for Basin native fish
Built in 1995 the fishway at Torrumbarry was the first to demonstrate how these innovative “fish ladders” help fish to pass through weirs allowing them to complete a range of life cycle requirements, including breeding and feeding, up and down the River. Monitoring at Torrumbarry has recorded up to 2200 endangered silver perch a day. More recently, new fishways have been built at Locks 7, 8, 9, 10, 15 and the barrages near the Murray Mouth. Work has also begun on a fishway at Lock 1 at Blanchetown in South Australia. They are part of the MDBC’s $45 million “Sea to Hume Dam” project which aims to provide continuous passage for native fish from the mouth of the Murray River to the Hume Dam, a distance of about 2300km. “This optimistic outlook is confirmed by the results of reports being done for us through the Commission’s Native Fish Strategy – a grand vision which aims to restore native fish populations to 60 per cent of their estimated pre-European settlement levels within 50 years,” MDBC Chief Executive Dr Wendy Craik AM said. “We spend $4.5 million a year on Strategy activities. “There have been success stories at other points along the Murray. Lockmasters at Lock 11 near Mildura recently reported a boost in the population of native fish in the waters on the downstream side of the lock. Species included silver perch, golden perch, Murray cod and bony herring,” Dr Craik said. “There have been some exciting preliminary results from a Living Murray program project at the Murray’s Lower Lakes in South Australia where substantial benefits were achieved for native fish and their ecology with just minimal environmental watering of the fishways there.” Since July last year, the project monitored tens of thousands of juvenile common galaxias, congolli and lampreys. “It seems that even in extreme dry conditions and with minimal environmental watering, the fishways are allowing some of these species important passage to complete life cycles that require their adults to spawn in the estuarine reaches of rivers and return to the sea while their juveniles move upstream into freshwater,” she said. Dr Craik said it was heartening that new understanding of European carp behaviour was helping to control numbers of this pest. The knowledge had allowed experts at some fish ways to devise innovative new carp cages that catch the carp but allow native species to swim unhindered. “We’ve also discovered at Banrock in South Australia that as wetlands dry out thousands of the destructive fish were left behind on the bare mudflats. The carp stayed behind and became trapped, while the native fish took off before the wetland was emptied. The carp actually swam into the out-flowing water, sealing their fate as they made their way even deeper into the wetlands. “We’ve always suspected that native fish would be well adapted to drying events because historically, these riverine wetlands would have dried out every few years. Now we know for sure,” Dr Craik said. For more information on the MDBC Native Fish Strategy go to www.mdbc.gov.au/NFS New
Murray-Darling Basin community advisers
Ken Rogers and Alison McTaggart are now part of the CAC - a group of 23 people formally appointed to advise the Murray-Darling Ministerial Council, from a community viewpoint, on critical natural resource management issues within the Basin. Committee members are appointed for their skills in governance, natural resource planning and management, community engagement, business, scientific expertise, social and economic expertise, conflict resolution and leadership. At their first meeting, the new members heard presentations on the “State of the Darling”, the Living Murray program and other agenda items to help CAC members provide a “whole of Basin” approach when formulating ministerial advice. For more information
contact Linda Kelly, Executive Officer on (02)62790532 or email linda.kelly@mdbc.gov.au
Students
learn natural resource management
The Coomealla High School (near Wentworth) students heard presentations on the The Living Murray program and how they could help deliver the catchment action plan. The students were asked to identify natural resource management issues which were of concern to them. The day included a bus tour, presentations, quizzes, and workshops. This was the first of three such forums across the Lower Murray Darling catchment – a second will be held at Broken Hill during winter. For more information contact Adrian Wells on 02 6021 3655. Found: rare
growling grass frog
“The frogs were discovered on a property near Murrabit after the landholder conducted a survey of the property as part of a joint program with North Central Waterwatch,” said North Central Regional Waterwatch Coordinator Leigh Mitchell. “The Growling Grass Frog is a large, fascinating frog with a very distinguishing ‘growling’ advertising call.” It’s listed as ‘threatened’ under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act and ‘vulnerable’ under the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. “This will be the first ‘new’ officially recorded population of this species in the North Central region for more than five years; it’s an extremely important and exciting discovery,” said Leigh. The recently developed North Central Waterwatch frog identification and distribution monitoring program is a direct response to considerable public interest in the small amphibians, with the program proving popular with many community members. The program is designed to raise community awareness of the various frog species found throughout the North Central region, especially the several species in the region that are listed as threatened. All survey data collected by North Central Waterwatch volunteers is stored on a central database, which is then forwarded to The Department of Sustainability and Environment, providing them with valuable frog distribution information. North Central Waterwatch offers information and training sessions as well as monitoring equipment and technical support to community members interested in conducting frog surveys. For more information contact Regional Waterwatch Coordinator Leigh Mitchell on 5440 1829 or email leigh.mitchell@nccma.vic.gov.au. Are
you a ‘Catchment Champion’?
The Authority wants to reward individuals and groups for their effort in natural resource management and recognise the difference they make to their community. Organisers say the Central West area has some wonderful and inspiring projects that deserve the recognition for their passion and hard work towards our environment. Each category will be judged on specific criteria by a panel consisting of one Authority Board member and a member from the Community Working Group, Local Government Reference Group and the Aboriginal Reference Group. The successful Champions of the Catchment will win $2,000, a plaque and will attend the State Awards in Tamworth in 2007. Runners up receive $1,000. Champions of the Catchment Awards will be presented to winners at the Mudgee Small Farm Field Days on 13 July 2007. Nominations close on Friday, 27 April. For more information and to download a nomination form, go to www.cw.cma.nsw.gov.au/ First National
Environmental Management Systems Forum
The forum starts on Monday 14 May with an Eco-mapping workshop followed by an informal evening welcome reception Each day of the Forum will be devoted to a different topic. Day one is titled “Practical approaches to EMS” and includes a workshop on how to develop and implement an EMS as well as a range of national and international case studies. Day two will promote discussion
on “Future Directions for EMS in Australia”. It will feature papers on
what has worked and what needs to be done in the four theme areas.
For more information go to www.ems.asn.au/events/2007_forum/ or contact or email contact@ems.asn.au Murray
River culture celebrated in music and art
Organisers say the riverfront will also come alive with the sounds of world-class entertainment with performers such as Opera/Musical/Theatre/Cabaret act “Pot-Pourri” headlining this year’s program. The Festival includes a celebration of the culture of the Murray through the River Murray Art Prize worth $7000. Former National Gallery curator Susan Jenkins will work with the local community to develop the presentation, status and scope of the art prize. This year the prize has expanded with a new ‘3D’ category in which artists are invited to respond to aspects of the river in sculptural form. For more information go to www.musiconthemurray.com.au/ ends |
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