It is with much delight that the Australian Floodplain Association welcomes Minister Darling's declaration of the Georgina and Diamantina Rivers and Cooper's Creek as wild rivers. This legislation permanently protects the water flows in these catchments from activity which could potentially take large amounts of water from the waterways.
Communities in Western Queensland now know that key waterways are protected from the threats of coal seam gas mining, open cut mining and large scale irrigation. It means food and fibre production can continue in a clean and green manner, as it has done for decades. It means communities can now be assured that in decades to come, mankind will not be scurrying to rehabilitate the Channel Country Rivers, as is currently happening in the Murray Darling Basin. Quite simply, it is far cheaper to protect now, then it is to rehabilitate in the future.
The Australian Floodplain Association will continue to work to ensure that grazing can continue to be one of the few food producing industries that opportunistically uses water as it flows across the landscape, and produces quality meat and fibre to meet the needs of our growing global population.
Facts please Karen.
ReplyDelete1.Mining can occur at 1 m outside a FMA or HPA.
CSG can occur in an HPA. This has been stated by Scott Buchanan from DERM.
2.The total sum of water licenses for irrigation in the Cooper Basin was/is the same size as the waterhole at Windorah and the waterhole at Longreach. I.e 18000-20000ML, and that a flow rate of 99% would still be maintained. This is sourced from the DERM's own material.
3.I have not had any evidence from AFA to prove hat they have more than 2 members in the affected area. I have asked the question at least twice but have recieved no reply either from you or the committee. My angle here is that you are unrepresentative of the wider basin population, yet you purport to speak on behalf of them. Emmott suffers from the same delusions.
I am not a supporter of mining or irrigation, but I am appalled at the way this was all bought about.
Alan MacDonald.
Tremendous news about the wild rivers decisions up there. Down here on the Murray near Swan Hill that momentous flood last year had nowhere to go because of all the dreadful levees etc. Even though it was almost a 1 in 100 there is so much overdevelopment that there is NO floodplain. So where the river used to flow out 10 kms over the floodplain there was NOTHING. However where it did escape there was so much water they are now buying up farmer's properties because they are not viable so close to the river. What a mess. And it is so hot and so dry so early in the year here because the aquifer is largely unconsolidated, that one wonders how they could ever have even sent anyone here. One thing is not in doubt though, which is that there is virtually no small mammal fauna because most of the habitat has been removed and they would die of exposure, let alone predation. So this is an overwhelmingly quiet dead floodplain. Congrats that yours will not be.
ReplyDeleteIn fact I'll refer you to this with regard to the CSG industry and Wild Rivers.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rapad.com.au/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=3268651&folderId=3268762&name=DLFE-49583.pdf
Caroline,
Unlike your system, there is virtually no irrigation developement in our system. There was no prospect of such either. Wild Rivers was imposed upon us from the top down, for mainly political purposes.
Alan MacDonald.