Flooding plan to save Murray red gums: [2 All-round First Edition]
Stapleton, John. Weekend Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 16 June 2007: 12.
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Abstract
“The property is right in the middle of the Perricoota system, with a state forest on one side and the river on the other,” Ms [Wendy Craik] said. “We are proposing to construct a channel and put in a number of weirs in a flood-enhancement project which will reconnect the flood plain to the river system.”
“It is flooding that created this forest, flooding that sustains it and flooding that keeps it healthy,” said Linda Broekman, icon site manager for The Living Murray scheme.
“This is not another job for me, I just love being here,” he said. “It is such a beautiful place. It is in my heart. To see it going the way it is hurts.”
Full Text
THOUSANDS of magnificent river red gums, many pre-dating European settlement, have withered and died from lack of water in forests straddling the River Murray.
The problem is clearly evident in the Gunbower and Perricoota state forests, which together cover 50,000ha and stretch for 70km along the border of Victoria and NSW.
The root systems of the trees require regular drenching for the red gums to survive but it has been 14 years since the last substantial flooding in the region.
Yet hope of a revival has emerged with the $4million purchase of a 1480ha property known as Toorangabby, 50km downstream from Echuca.
The move by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, in conjunction with the NSW Government, under a scheme known as The Living Murray, is being heralded as a major step forward in improving the health of wetlands and red gum forests.
Commission head Wendy Craik said the purchase would enable the flooding of the forests in a way likely to keep them alive without causing problems for private landholders.
“The property is right in the middle of the Perricoota system, with a state forest on one side and the river on the other,” Ms Craik said. “We are proposing to construct a channel and put in a number of weirs in a flood-enhancement project which will reconnect the flood plain to the river system.”
The forests have the look of a dead world about them. Huge blocks of “driftwood” lie scattered among the giant gums, left there from the last deluge. But thefine, pale silver-grey silt, washed down over the ages from the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, has seen little water for many years.
Once a breeding ground for migratory birds, the great rookeries where thousands of ibises, herons, stilts, brolgas, wading birds and bitterns raised their young, are now empty.
“It is flooding that created this forest, flooding that sustains it and flooding that keeps it healthy,” said Linda Broekman, icon site manager for The Living Murray scheme.
“The river needs flows of more than 17,000 megalitres a day just to begin flooding into the forests.
“That is why we need to help it. Buying Toorangabby has been the key to saving this magnificent place.”
Lindsay Jones, 54, a field worker in the red gum forests for the past 25 years, said that when he first started work, he would often have to do his job by boat for months at a time.
“This is not another job for me, I just love being here,” he said. “It is such a beautiful place. It is in my heart. To see it going the way it is hurts.”