‘Absolute disrespect’: Bulldozers at the gate as fight over river steps up

Uncle Vince Kirby’s ancestors are buried in a sacred cultural space not far from where we stand.

They left behind their fish traps, ceremonial grounds, cultural trees and shell middens, which are scattered around Nyah-Vinifera Park, a protected river red gum forest on Murray River floodplains near Swan Hill.

Today, red flags trace the path of destruction scheduled to come through the park, cleaving the landscape with a complex and imposing series of structures, including eight gated structures called regulators to store water, more than two kilometres of containment banks and pipes to hold it, and assorted infrastructure.

The Allan government says the works will allow it to restore eight floodplain sites on the critically endangered Lower Murray Darling system. They also give the government a mechanism to reduce the amount of water flowing down the river under the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

In 2023, this mechanism allowed Victoria to reduce by 7.2 billion litres the amount of environmental flows that could not be removed from the river. It also means that other parts of the river will be starved of the water that would otherwise flow.

Building these structures will require heavy machinery to carve up the forest and riverbanks, and the destruction of up to 80 large trees and 15 hectares of smaller trees here at Vinifera. Two other projects are planned at Nyah, further to the north, and Hattah Lakes North, at a combined cost of $100.5 million.

“This project will return water to the floodplain in a way that supports healthy ecosystems, helping protect native plants, wildlife and threatened species while safeguarding these habitats for future generations,” an environment department spokesperson says.

“Water is not reaching parts of the floodplain as often as it should, or at all. After years of detailed planning and assessment, these works will deliver the water this floodplain needs both now and in a drier future climate.”

What sticks in Kirby’s throat is what he calls the “absolute disrespect” from authorities who he says didn’t consult Wadi Wadi traditional owners, and then promoted their respect for Aboriginal culture and custodianship on their slick promotional website.

“It’s not respect. That’s just a word, a terminology to put out there,” he says.

“[It’s] just to say, ‘Look, we did mention the respect to their culture’ – but how can you say you respected a culture when you walk on all over it?”

Kirby says the park has been mismanaged and deliberately starved of water, which is taken out upstream by licence holders determined to fulfil their water entitlements and, increasingly, trade them on the liberalised water market.

This project is part of Victoria’s commitment to a Murray Darling Basin-wide program called the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism, which allows governments to build projects they say will deliver environmental outcomes with less water.

Under the Murray Darling Basin Plan, “sustainable diversion” limits apply to the amount of water that can be removed from river and groundwater systems for agricultural and other uses.

Ministers agreed in 2017 to alter the plan to use the adjustment mechanism to reduce the amount of water reserved for the system by 19 per cent, or 605 billion litres a year on average, for projects that will deliver environmental outcomes with less water.

Each state’s share is due to be determined by the end of the year, as part of this year’s review of the entire plan. In 2023, Victoria’s was roughly 72 billion litres.

With less water in the system, and a Lower Murray system in crisis, every drop now counts.

This forest – on a vast floodplain of the Murray – used to flood every year or two. Now it’s a rare event, which spells trouble for the forest’s red gums that rely on regular flooding for both their life and death.

When this system is healthy, regular flooding kills off most red gum saplings, keeping their propagation in check. Mature and old-growth trees suck up the excess water, fuelling fresh growth.

Kirby points to thickets of red gum saplings, which have colonised and begun to suffocate a billabong. “See them? They shouldn’t be there.”

Campaigner Dr Jacquie Kelly, who has camped in the forest for 29 days straight, says the red-flagged bunting, which goes for kilometres, highlighted where a lengthy levee could forever change this ancient landscape.

“It will block this area from that area, so blocking animals, blocking people, blocking water,” she says, pointing to each side of the bunting.

“They’ll pump water into here, but over there that stretch and all the bends in the river over there, they won’t get water. So there’s going to be a live area and a dead area.”

Environment Victoria chief executive Jono La Nauze says it’s possible to increase water flows to the Murray without “tricky accounting”.

“It’s completely achievable, but a succession of Victorian governments have been ideologically opposed to letting that water out onto the floodplain – not because they hate the floodplain, but because they think there’s an extra dollar that could be turned from [reserving water for agriculture and] selling almonds overseas,” he says.

“This little patch of forest is not the sum total of the fight, but the fight starts here and, hopefully, it actually extends, and brings the whole dodgy scheme tumbling down.”

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