Fears Goulburn River farms would be flooded under plans to return water to the environment have eased, after the so-called Murray Darling Basin Plan Constraints Project was scrapped.
Upper Goulburn River Catchment Association representative Jan Beer, Cheviot Hills, Yea, said the scrapping of the relaxed constraint measures was a big victory for landowners. “We had opposed this project from the very start,” Ms Beer said.
Ms Beer said the 2007 Water Act clearly stated the plan’s environmental objectives were to be achieved by easing or removing constraints on the capacity to deliver environmental water down rivers.
“When they went through it, all they could get from the Goulburn project was four gigalitres (GL) at a cost of $140 million.” On the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s (MDBA) own figures, achieving that would have affected 562 properties, along 440km of the Goulburn River.
She said delivery to South Australia of the 450GL upwater was completely dependent on a “relaxed” constraints strategy.
But studies had not clearly specified an examination of impacts from constraints strategy, its viability and technical achievability of the delivery. “You can’t continually inundate rich river flood plains, and expect them recover and be productive.”
Ms Beer said it was now imperative planning took into account community concerns, “to decide what is acceptable and what is feasible, by starting at looking at in-stream, not overbank, flows”.
“They have to start from scratch.”
Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville said Victoria would now develop a new Goulburn constraints project, which must be accepted by the community, be feasible and based on improved data and on-the-ground knowledge.
Victoria reiterated its position that any constraints project would not flood private property without consent, nor be based on compulsory land acquisitions.
“This is a great outcome for the Murray-Darling Basin,” Ms Neville said.
