Murray River ‘wetland engineering’ projects to face legal challenge 

Controversial plans to engineer wetlands along the Murray are under fresh scrutiny after a local environment group launched a legal case against the approval of one of the projects.

Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park 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.

The Nyah project is one of nine proposals, branded the Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration Project (VMFRP), which attempt to engineer natural wetlands to survive with less water. One has already been withdrawn due to ‘unacceptable environmental effects’, and four others are paused.

“We’ve repeatedly questioned the justification for these wetland engineering projects and we welcome news of this legal challenge,” said Environment Victoria Rivers and Nature Campaign Manager Greg Foyster.

“The projects involve cutting down hundreds of big old trees to make way for new infrastructure, which will send in just enough water to keep select parts of the floodplain on life support with levees and regulators.

“While some river red gums will be given the water they need, other habitats may be completely drowned, and some places will miss out on getting water at all. These projects will turn dynamic mosaics of floodplain habitat into big irrigation bays.

“Worst of all, the projects will be used as a ‘water offset’ to reduce the total amount of water for the environment. So not only are there local impacts, but less water will be available for wetlands in other parts of the river system.

“What the floodplain actually needs is a return to more natural flows. That means more regular pulses of water to spread over riverbanks and into low-lying wetlands and forests.

“These small overbank flows, below the minor flood level, could reinvigorate the hundreds of native species that rely on healthy wetlands and floodplain forests in the Murray-Darling.

“A less-constrained river can water an area 27 times larger than the engineered projects. Often those maps overlap, but the assessment of this project was flawed and didn’t consider a genuine alternative approach.

“Traditional Owners from across the Murray have previous expressed deep concern about these wetland engineering projects in a public statement to The Age, saying they will ‘will entail major and lasting alterations to some of our most sacred and sensitive areas of Country’.”

“Going to court is a significant burden, especially for a small community group. Thank you to Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park and the legal team at Environmental Justice Australia for providing some much-needed scrutiny of these dubious wetland engineering projects.”