"There is much to be said for a policy of abolishing all drought relief assistance. Drought is a normal, natural, cyclic factor of our environment and if you can not understand and cope with that, maybe you should not be farming" concludes Warwick Hughes in his latest drought assessment(30 kbs).
And some of the farmers I met over the last couple of days would agree with Warwick.
Yesterday I was driven from Brewarrina (100 kms east of Bourke) all the way north to the Queensland border, and beyond, to check out Cubbie Station and the water infrastructure associated with this now large cotton farm.
Many farmers in this Border River's region are more concerned about the possibility of their Coolibahs no-longer being flooded because of the Cubbie water diversions than 'the drought'.
Pop Petersen of Brenda Station, which straddles the NSW-Queensland border on the Culgoa River, has data on river heights back to 1890. Her records suggest 110 floods over the last 100 years. The last flood was in March 1999. Pop claims that there should have been a flood just last year with a river height of 5.76 metres, but that it didn't happen because of the new upstream diversions.
I plan to test Pop's hypothesis by plotting the historical data on river heights for Brenda Station against the historical rainfall records for that catchment.
I have some pictures (30-70 kbs in size) from the trip:
Dawn at View image
The Culgoa at Brenda Station: View image
Some signage at Weilmoringel (3 floodway signs perhaps equals wishful thinking):View image
I saw more emus than sheep:View image
Part of a Cubbie Station bund wall that we followed for 31kms:View image
Intake channel for Cubbie from the Culgoa:View image
End.
There is a grand old film made 50 years back called the Dam Busters. It was one of those heroic epic war films.
Seems to me that it is time for the Dam busters to return.
As we talk the Murray is dying.
um yeah...................
The whole basin is trashed,not just because of cubbie station, but many european factors. tear down damn walls let the river run naturally
Now we know the truth behind the demise of the Murray River system are we all going to stand by and watch as this river system dies. Already the shores of the River, the Coorong and Lake Alexandrina are heavy with dangerous metals and poisons as the waters recede.
Australia cannot support either rice or cotton growing and it is utterly ludicrous to water our crops by flood irrigation as is the case around Griffith and other inland towns. Water traveling along open drains is an appalling waste of this precious commodity let alone being spread over hot dry paddocks.
Can you please tell me what is the point of saving water in our town communities when farmers continue to spread the water over their paddocks in the hottest and driest parts of our continent.
What ludicrous water management system are we following here?
We need to unite to save the Murray system or it will too soon be accepted as another quirk of nature.
Cubbie Station and others like it need to be reversed.
These companies cannot and should not be allowed to hold the rest of us and a magnificent River system to ransom.
WATER: NOT A CORPORATE RESOURCE
FAIR WATER USE (AUSTRALIA) is a new lobby group formed by Australians, from all walks of life, with a shared vision of a revived Murray-Darling basin and all the consequent environmental, community and sustainable economic benefits.
After the recent rains in Queensland, the dams on Cubbie Station now contain over three years supply of water which will be used for the cultivation of cotton in a country ravaged by drought.
Cubbie Station is licensed to take 460,000 megalitres – more than enough to fill Sydney Harbour - extracted from the Murray-Darling catchment virtually free of charge. Sadly, Cubbie is only one of several huge enterprises, some at least partially-owned by overseas interests, which have directly impeded the flow of this vast and essential river system, and there is strong evidence that dam construction continues on a huge scale.
The following statement appears on the Cubbie Group web-site:
"Cubbie Group management believes that production of irrigated cotton and a viable environment can co-exist in a sustainable manner and the group has designed and managed their properties to achieve this goal."
In reality there is irrefutable evidence that the plight of the Murray-Darling Basin and the resulting regional, social and environmental devastation is, to a significant extent, a consequence of the cultivation of inappropriate and unnecessary crops in this the driest continent on earth.
It is time to resolve this anathema.
The fact that Australian irrigators make efficient use of their water allocations is an irrelevance. The large scale cultivation of cotton and rice is causing major damage to the environmental health of much of south-eastern Australia.
On the global stage, Australian cotton and rice-growers are minor players. The Australian cotton-growing industry accounts for only 2-3% of total international production (ICAC 2005) and historically employs less than 2% of the national agricultural workforce (ABARE 2001). There is minimal benefit to average Australians as a result of this corporate water pillaging: well over 90% of the cotton grown in Australia is sent overseas for processing (ACSA 2004), with little value-adding occurring within this country.
Australian rice growers employ on a similar scale, an estimated 8,000 people nationwide, and produce a mere 0.2% of the global rice harvest (About Rice 2008).
As a nation we cannot afford to let the environmental degradation continue, but with the budgetary surplus projected to exceed 15 billion dollars in the current financial year, we can afford to provide appropriate financial reparation to the growers and their employees. As advocated by Mr Rupert Murdoch in November 2006: "The Government should get a billion dollars - or whatever it is - and buy back the water rights from the people who use the most”.
Fair Water Use is asking the directors of the Cubbie Group and other large cotton and rice producers to search their corporate consciences, to cease such operations and to let the rivers run again - for the sake of the nation’s future.
A nationwide campaign is currently being devised and we are in communication with a high-profile environmentalist who has expressed interest in acting as our spokesperson.
We need help in creating as large a supporter base as possible: If you would like to register your support for this campaign, please contact fairwateruse@internode.on.net , stating your name, current occupation and postcode.
Please spread the word. If you wish to join our supporter base and or can offer assistance to the campaign planning process, please contact us at fairwateruse@internode.on.net
Fair Water Use (Australia)
PO Box 384
Balhannah
South Australia
5242