On what was once a thriving floodplain in north-west Victoria, the skeletons of hundreds of dead black box trees signal an ecosystem in trouble.
The site, known as Hattah North, is part of Hattah-Kulkyne National Park, one of the most biologically diverse parks in Victoria.
It is home to 57 species listed as threatened in the state and several nationally listed species, including the Mallee fowl, regent parrot and Mallee emu wren.
Its future, and that of eight other Victorian floodplain ecosystems, was thrust into uncertainty last week after the Victorian and federal governments reached a stalemate over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Political stalemate
Unless Victoria signs on to an extension of the plan ushered in by the federal government last week, the Commonwealth has refused to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for Victoria’s Floodplain Restoration Projects, also known as Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism (SDLAM) projects.
Victoria is the only basin state that hasn’t agreed to the plan.
Victorian water minister Harriet Shing said she was unable to sign up because she believed federal buybacks of irrigation water for the environment, which have been made possible under the amended plan, would hurt Victorian communities.
“Our position on buybacks has been absolutely clear. For years now we opposed them on the basis that they harm communities,” Ms Shing said.
She said Victoria’s SDLAM projects were now caught in a political limbo.
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“It’s somewhat curious that [the federal government is] saying unless we sign up [to the basin plan extension], they’re not going to fund projects that deliver for Victorian environments, which is the whole point of the plan in the first place,” she said.
Without funding, Ms Shing said Hattah North would be in serious trouble.
“Unless [Hattah North] gets water to where it is needed in a gentle and consistent way, the ecosystem doesn’t develop the resilience that it needs and won’t have the adaptation to climate change,” Ms Shing said.
A spokesperson for Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said in a statement the federal government had offered a funding arrangement for these projects “that the Victorian government has refused”.
“All other states have agreed and will receive federal funding for their SDLAM projects,” the spokesperson said.
Regulated wetlands
If Victoria were to receive funding for the projects, it would install a series of pipes and regulators to pump water to Hattah North and eight other sites.
Ms Shing claimed Victoria’s proposal would rescue the sites from a slow death and save 72.5 gigalitres of water — the equivalent of 29,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools — which would otherwise have been needed to push floodwater out across floodplains in a natural flooding event.
“Floodplain management projects are of crucial importance to delivering water to areas just like this, and we know that using pumps and regulators can get water onto floodplains to protect and to help around 1,400 hectares of really precious environmental land,” she said.
Any water saved by the projects would count towards a basin-wide target of 605GL in water savings for the environment under the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
Irrigators concerned
Sunraysia grape grower Peter Ebner said he was concerned that if the SDLAM projects did not go ahead, the federal government could look to recover the proposed 72.5GL in environmental water savings from the Sunraysia, Robinvale and Torrumbarry irrigation communities.
“These projects are pretty critical. And I just wish [the state and federal governments would] stop mucking around and get on with it,” he said.
“When I heard the [Victorian water] minister was coming to town I fully expected that the state and the Commonwealth might have come to some form of agreement to make sure that the SDLAM projects in the Mallee would proceed,” he said.
Environmental benefits questioned
Environment Victoria healthy rivers campaigner Tyler Rotche welcomed the shelving of the projects, and said he was hopeful it could lead to a better environmental outcome.
“The projects are environmentally dubious,” he said.
“The projects themselves, what they do on the landscape is they’re really engineered wetlands: redgum irrigation ponds.
“It’s not only changing the environment, but it’s potentially creating conditions where [the invasive species] carp can do even better. So it’s really dangerous in that regard.
“What we’re talking about is really clearing hundreds of old trees, and then building levees on the floodplain and changing how the water flows there. And ultimately, for the purpose of an offset, so leaving less water in the river.”
Mr Rotche said he would prefer to see funding put into infrastructure projects like raising roads and bridges to allow higher natural flows along the Murray River, which would naturally push water out into floodplains.
“One of the things we’ve been asking the whole time is that as much funding as possible is put towards that work of relaxing constraints … that would have such a benefit for the entire river system,” Mr Rotche said.
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