The group, which represents eight organisations across the NSW Murray, said it was concerned about the effects of unregulated river flows and had developed the NSW Murray Valley Adaptive Road Map, which aimed to deliver water flow and management solutions.
An initial part of the road map is the Mid-Murray Monitoring Project. The first stage has been finished and involved the group monitoring the ecological benefits from recent unregulated flow events, as well as the third party impacts to landholders.
Group chair Geoff Moar said it was important to understand how the river environment benefited from the increased flows seen this year, compared to more recent dry years.
He said they had not received government funding and thanked the volunteer landholders, and members of the scientific community who helped in a pro-bono capacity, to conduct the monitoring.
“Volunteers have collaborated to collect data, and a local ecologist and expert in environmental flows has helped us prepare a report,” Mr Moar said.
“This work highlights the ecological benefits, as well as the third-party impacts, when there are flows between 25,000 and 30,000 megalitres a day from Yarrawonga.”
He said the group would be inviting numerous government department and agency personnel to attend an online presentation of the report, which he hoped would help improve everyone’s understanding of river flows and the beneficial, and adverse, effects they could have on the environment and landholders.
Mr Moar said the group wanted to work with governments to develop water management solutions that provided a balance between protecting the environment and ensuring communities remained sustainable.
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