The community group taking the Australian government to the Federal Court over plans to undertake massive artificial engineering works on fragile Murray River floodplains had their hearing on Tuesday April 8 in the Federal Court.
This is the first case challenging projects which avoid the recovery of environmental water under the Murray Basin Plan.
The Victorian government wants to spend many millions of dollars creating levee banks and installing large pump stands and water regulators at several locations along the Murray River in northern Victoria to divert water onto selected floodplains.
These works are being used to justify the government providing a reduced amount of water for the environment under the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
The community action group, Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park, represented by Environmental Justice Australia, is taking the Federal government to court.
They argue the environmental approval for one of these projects, at the Nyah floodplain near Swan Hill, was flawed and unlawful. They are concerned the project will be locally damaging, scar the landscape, alter the river flows and mean less water will reach the Murray-Darling's precious floodplains.
Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park chair Jacquie Kelly says:
"The Murray River can’t speak for itself, so we’re going to court to protect it. This project approval needs proper scrutiny."
"The Victorian government wants to spend millions of dollars to build massive levees, regulators and pump stands, instead of simply giving the river the water it needs to flow naturally.”
Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park member Nicole McKay says:
“Once the damage is done, there’s no going back. We’ve seen what happens when rivers are engineered like this – blackwater, toxic algae, and mass fish deaths.”
Wati Wati Traditional Owner, and Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park member, Vince Kirby says:
“The health and wealth of everything is connected here: people, trees, water, bush medicine, burial and other special places. Our concerns are for our ancestors and for the future of our young people – we’ve already seen enough destruction; we don’t need anymore.”
“We all want to help these abused places return to thriving. What’s the good of revegetating alongside our creeks, if the water all goes out of there?”
Environmental Justice Australia lawyer Nicola Silbert, says:
‘Our client is deeply concerned this is a major artificial engineering project in a fragile wetland that needs proper environmental scrutiny and consideration of other options available.’
The legal challenge The group is challenging a decision made under Australia’s environment laws, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999, to approve the Nyah “water offset” project proposed by Lower Murray Water (a state government water authority), as part of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
This is the first case challenging projects which avoid the recovery of environmental water under the Murray Basin Plan.
If the case is successful, it could force the Victorian government to consider different ways of providing more water for the environment. These floodplains require regular water to stay healthy, and Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park say this should happen through natural flooding and water allocated to environmental flows.
Instead of doing damage with earthworks, steel or concrete, the group says the opposite needs to happen. Other state governments are removing constraints like levees and concrete that get in the way of the river's natural flows, but so far, the Victorian government has refused.
Of several projects, the Nyah project is one of four major river reengineering projects proposed by the Victorian government that have received federal government approval.
A project assessed alongside Nyah – known as the Burra Creek Floodplain Restoration Project – was withdrawn in January after the Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny ruled the project could cause unacceptable environmental damage, including by clearing ‘very large old trees’, damage to the regent parrot and the lack of understanding of the ‘Wakool Effect’ (the hydrology when the Wakool River floods into the Murray River).
‘The project is likely to result in unacceptable environmental effects on … biodiversity values in this important flood plain environment due to significant loss of native vegetation,’ Ms Kilkenny wrote in her assessment.
Background
These Murray River floodplains need to be intermittently inundated with water: they are an essential breeding and feeding habitat for waterbirds, fish, insects and plants. To remain healthy, they need to be alternately wet and dry.
The Murray-Darling basin has 30,000 wetlands, including 16 recognised as an internationally important haven for birdlife, some of which are proposed engineering sites.
Friends of NyahVinifera Park, established in 1996, is a Swan Hill based community environment group that works towards the protection of river red gum and black box wetland forests and their flora, fauna and ecological values. The group aligns closely with Wati Wati traditional owners to achieve their aspirations around land, water and culture.
For media inquiries contact: Miki Perkins, 03 8341 3110, [email protected]
