The task of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is to set aside enough water to sustain wetlands, and then let it flow downstream: restoring the river’s heartbeat.
Here’s how it should happen: Water set aside for the environment is released from dams in pulses, mimicking the seasonal rhythms that once sustained the river landscape. River operators open the taps, the river rises and nourishes billabongs and forests on the floodplain.
But in practice, much of that water never reaches the floodplain. Only 2% of the Basin’s wetlands can get it. It is held back by ‘constraints’ – regulatory rules and outdated infrastructure that limit how much water can flow downstream. Letting the river flow across low-lying floodplains requires moving pumps, temporarily relocating livestock, upgrading roads. But the changes we’re talking about aren’t monumental. The river would rise to below minor flood level, lower than where homes and sheds are allowed to be built.
The modelled extent of inundation at Gemmill Swamp, Lower Goulburn at the increasing flow scenarios (measured at Shepparton)
Even relaxing constraints slightly along the Goulburn River could save 6000 hectares of river red gum forest from drying out. Across the southern Basin, taking this approach could allow water to reach more than 370,000 hectares of wetland. That’s about 7.5 times the size of Wilson’s Prom.
The main barrier is concern from some private landholders who don’t want water passing over their paddocks, even for a short duration with advance notice and compensation.
One path forward is negotiating ‘flow easements’ with these landholders. It’s often said that if this were a highway, it would’ve been built a decade ago. But the political dynamics are different. Rivers aren’t so predictable. And unlike roads that serve private interests, the benefits of a living river, flowing with all its complexity, are harder to measure.
The task of relaxing these constraints is linked to the Basin Plan’s complex offsets program and crosses the borders of multiple jurisdictions. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has mapped out a plan, but cautiously, at reduced flow rates and blown out timelines.
To move forward, we need to see in practical terms what different flows can achieve. Then governments need to act. The benefits of constraints relaxation ripple outward, beyond ecosystems. Letting the water flow reduces ‘spills’ from dams. It also means upgraded infrastructure and improved forecasting systems: all critical as climate change drives more intense rainfall and heavy flooding.
At its core, this program is about giving rivers back their heartbeat and ensuring that all of us who live alongside them can appreciate that rhythm as well.
This article was first published in issue 43 of Environment Victoria News, read the full edition here.