Putting water back in the rivers
Wahlquist, Asa. John Stapleton, The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 13 Aug 2008: 39.
Wahlquist, Asa. John Stapleton, The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 13 Aug 2008: 39.
Abstract
Historic Toorale Station, on the junction of the Darling and Warrego Rivers, is owned by Clyde Agriculture. Managing director John McKillop admits he would be disappointed “to see a beautiful property like Toorale put into non-productive use, but if that is what the Australian community wants, that is the best use for it”. The property has about 14,000ML in storage, which he argues is “an insignificant amount” compared with the 200,000ML that evaporates annually from Menindee Lakes.
“We have 6000ha of irrigated wheat and we have about 20,000 hectares of dryland wheat. One of the crops we may grow is cotton, but we grow whatever we can make the best return out of. Per megalitre, wheat this year is the answer.” Queensland’s Cubbie Station, perhaps Australia’s best-known cotton farm, is also on the ACF’s buyback list. Cubbie’s John Grabbe refuses to comment on whether Cubbie is for sale. He is planning to refocus the property on food production. This year Cubbie has 15,000ha planted to irrigated wheat.
Much is often made of Cubbie’s capacity to store 500GL, but filling that storage is a one in 10 year event. After a number of dry years, the last summer half-filled Cubbie’s dams. “With water we are turning the corner,” Grabbe says. “It is great to be producing food for the world.”
Full Text
Conservationists are calling on the Government to buy several large farming operations for their water allocations
SUMMER’S big La Nina rains dumped floods on the northern part of the Murray-Darling basin, but drought persisted throughout the Murray system. The result is that a relatively small number of big irrigators at the top of the Darling system have a good water supply while most of the basin is suffering a severe water shortage.
Protest meetings have called for governments to rescue the Lower Lakes at the Murray River mouth in South Australia from ecological collapse. The protesters called for governments to purchase the water held in dams, both public and private, and for water to be put back into the rivers.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has nominated six well-known properties that could be purchased so their water licences can be returned to the river. It argues an outlay of $600 million would secure at least 400 gigalitres (GL) — a billion litres — on average, for the Murray-Darling system.
The summer floods are now just a memory, and the Darling River is drying out. Wilcannia farmer and Australian Flood Plain Association president Mark Etheridge has drastically reduced the number of livestock he runs. He has had to de-stock almost 40,000 hectares of his 50,000 hectare property, Kalyanka.
The property has almost 80km of frontage to the Darling River. Apart from the degradation of his paddocks, billabongs and wetlands, one of the major difficulties of the river being so dry is that he has lost a natural perimeter around his land.
“Fencing 80km of river would be massively expensive,” he says.
The drying of the river is a natural event, but irrigation is amplifying the drought, Etheridge says. He argues his industry, grazing natural floodplain pastures, is sustainable, unlike some of what he describes as inappropriate irrigation upstream.
The Murray-Darling state governments all agree the rivers’ water has been over-allocated, that too many water licences have been issued. The federal Government has launched a $3 billion water buyback program to purchase water from irrigators willing to sell and return it to the river.
Etheridge estimates 900GL of water were taken out of the system for irrigation before the Darling reached his property. “Had there been a natural flow, all those billabongs on my property would have been filled,” he says.
The Murray Darling Basin Commission estimates 810GL is held in private dams, upstream of Wilcannia, at July 31. An additional 1090GL was in public dams.
The commission estimates the Lower Lakes need between 1050GL and 1250GL to fill them to sea level and prevent the exposed lake bed acidifying.
The Murray Darling system loses an extraordinary amount of water in evaporation. The Lower Lakes lose between 750GL and 950GL a year in evaporation and seepage. Transmission losses — the water lost as the river travels slowly downstream — are also huge. The commission estimates up to 80 per cent of water held in northern dams would be lost in transmission on the long journey to the Lower Lakes.
In any event, those with water in their dams have big plans for it.
The properties targeted by the ACF are all known as big cotton farms, and cotton farming does not enjoy a good press in South Australia. However, the soft commodity boom — the rise in wheat grain and oilseed prices — has led to a huge swing away from cotton to irrigated wheat growing.
Ron Storey, from Australian Crop Forecasters, has observed the switch. “There were some extras sales of seed to irrigation farmers this year. They did their sums. Grain prices have been so high and they calculated they would do better out of grain.”
Storey points out the security of having irrigation water also enables growers to sell forward early in the season, when prices are up to $150/tonne higher than they are now. “When the futures market went very high in February and again in June, I suspect the more sophisticated people out there would have been hedging some of those returns,” he says.
The ACF’s buyback list includes two properties on the Darling River near Bourke that are currently for sale — Toorale and Darling Farms.
Ian Cole manages Darling Farms, which is valued at $70 million. It has about 12,000 hectares developed for irrigation, and a bit less than 30,000 megalitres (million litres) of water in storage. Only twice since 2002 has Darling Farm filled its dams.
“When you look at it long-term, we would average pumping about 20,000ML to 25,000ML a year,” Cole says.
This year they have 2000 hectares of irrigated wheat. “We will have enough water, if the government doesn’t buy it, to put in a fairly large cotton crop,” he says.
Historic Toorale Station, on the junction of the Darling and Warrego Rivers, is owned by Clyde Agriculture. Managing director John McKillop admits he would be disappointed “to see a beautiful property like Toorale put into non-productive use, but if that is what the Australian community wants, that is the best use for it”. The property has about 14,000ML in storage, which he argues is “an insignificant amount” compared with the 200,000ML that evaporates annually from Menindee Lakes.
Clyde Agriculture has been one of the biggest cotton growers in the country, but years of drought have reduced their crop.
Last year Australia produced its smallest cotton crop in 25 years, at 116,000 tonnes, well below the peak of the $2 billion crop of 819,000 tonnes in 2000-01.
Toorale, like other cotton farms, has always grown other crops as well, but the recent high price of grain has refocused its cropping program.
“We had corn in this year and sorghum, and we now have wheat,” McKillop says.
“We have 6000ha of irrigated wheat and we have about 20,000 hectares of dryland wheat. One of the crops we may grow is cotton, but we grow whatever we can make the best return out of. Per megalitre, wheat this year is the answer.” Queensland’s Cubbie Station, perhaps Australia’s best-known cotton farm, is also on the ACF’s buyback list. Cubbie’s John Grabbe refuses to comment on whether Cubbie is for sale. He is planning to refocus the property on food production. This year Cubbie has 15,000ha planted to irrigated wheat.
Grabbe reckons that will produce 100,000 tonnes of high-protein, high-value wheat, an important contribution to a national crop estimated to come in between 21 and 24 million tonnes this year.
“We are very much now a diversified agricultural operation,” Grabbe says. “Driving it is the demand for food in the world. That demand for food is driving prices up, so it makes these other crops look quite attractive.”
Much is often made of Cubbie’s capacity to store 500GL, but filling that storage is a one in 10 year event. After a number of dry years, the last summer half-filled Cubbie’s dams. “With water we are turning the corner,” Grabbe says. “It is great to be producing food for the world.”
Further downstream Tandou Station, also on the ACF wishlist but not for sale, has made a different decision about its water. Chief executive Guy Kingwill says Tandou has 10,000ML of water for temporary sale or lease this year.
“We would look at where are the highest returns for our water: do we grow a crop or do we trade it?” Kingwill says. Because 30 dry kilometres of channel separate the farm from the water, which is held in Menindee lakes, Kingwill says 10,000ML “wasn’t enough to start operations. You have to fill channels, which take a whack of water. We would have loved to have planted a cereal crop, but my water was marginal.”
So Tandou has put 10,000ML up for temporary trade this year — probably the largest parcel of water available. With prices between $580 and $600 a megalitre, it will be a nice little earner for the company. “Surprisingly, we have had absolutely no inquiry from the environmental groups to buy,” Kingwill notes.
A spokeswoman from the office of Water Minister Penny Wong says the Government is open to talking to any willing sellers of water — including those listed by the ACF — but is not interested in temporary trades.
The big irrigators have come in for trenchant criticism at the lower end of the river system. Cotton, in particular, has been demonised, but the move to cereal production, and a world shortage of food, could change the argument that farms known for cotton growing be stripped of their water.
McKillop says: “You can throw stones at Cubbie Station or even Toorale, but they are not the big issue. The big issues are mismanagement, over-allocation in the southern streams, and over-riding all that is drought. There just hasn’t been the rainfall”.
Credit: Asa Wahlquist, John Stapleton
Conservationists are calling on the Government to buy several large farming operations for their water allocations
SUMMER’S big La Nina rains dumped floods on the northern part of the Murray-Darling basin, but drought persisted throughout the Murray system. The result is that a relatively small number of big irrigators at the top of the Darling system have a good water supply while most of the basin is suffering a severe water shortage.
Protest meetings have called for governments to rescue the Lower Lakes at the Murray River mouth in South Australia from ecological collapse. The protesters called for governments to purchase the water held in dams, both public and private, and for water to be put back into the rivers.
The Australian Conservation Foundation has nominated six well-known properties that could be purchased so their water licences can be returned to the river. It argues an outlay of $600 million would secure at least 400 gigalitres (GL) — a billion litres — on average, for the Murray-Darling system.
The summer floods are now just a memory, and the Darling River is drying out. Wilcannia farmer and Australian Flood Plain Association president Mark Etheridge has drastically reduced the number of livestock he runs. He has had to de-stock almost 40,000 hectares of his 50,000 hectare property, Kalyanka.
The property has almost 80km of frontage to the Darling River. Apart from the degradation of his paddocks, billabongs and wetlands, one of the major difficulties of the river being so dry is that he has lost a natural perimeter around his land.
“Fencing 80km of river would be massively expensive,” he says.
The drying of the river is a natural event, but irrigation is amplifying the drought, Etheridge says. He argues his industry, grazing natural floodplain pastures, is sustainable, unlike some of what he describes as inappropriate irrigation upstream.
The Murray-Darling state governments all agree the rivers’ water has been over-allocated, that too many water licences have been issued. The federal Government has launched a $3 billion water buyback program to purchase water from irrigators willing to sell and return it to the river.
Etheridge estimates 900GL of water were taken out of the system for irrigation before the Darling reached his property. “Had there been a natural flow, all those billabongs on my property would have been filled,” he says.
The Murray Darling Basin Commission estimates 810GL is held in private dams, upstream of Wilcannia, at July 31. An additional 1090GL was in public dams.
The commission estimates the Lower Lakes need between 1050GL and 1250GL to fill them to sea level and prevent the exposed lake bed acidifying.
The Murray Darling system loses an extraordinary amount of water in evaporation. The Lower Lakes lose between 750GL and 950GL a year in evaporation and seepage. Transmission losses — the water lost as the river travels slowly downstream — are also huge. The commission estimates up to 80 per cent of water held in northern dams would be lost in transmission on the long journey to the Lower Lakes.
In any event, those with water in their dams have big plans for it.
The properties targeted by the ACF are all known as big cotton farms, and cotton farming does not enjoy a good press in South Australia. However, the soft commodity boom — the rise in wheat grain and oilseed prices — has led to a huge swing away from cotton to irrigated wheat growing.
Ron Storey, from Australian Crop Forecasters, has observed the switch. “There were some extras sales of seed to irrigation farmers this year. They did their sums. Grain prices have been so high and they calculated they would do better out of grain.”
Storey points out the security of having irrigation water also enables growers to sell forward early in the season, when prices are up to $150/tonne higher than they are now. “When the futures market went very high in February and again in June, I suspect the more sophisticated people out there would have been hedging some of those returns,” he says.
The ACF’s buyback list includes two properties on the Darling River near Bourke that are currently for sale — Toorale and Darling Farms.
Ian Cole manages Darling Farms, which is valued at $70 million. It has about 12,000 hectares developed for irrigation, and a bit less than 30,000 megalitres (million litres) of water in storage. Only twice since 2002 has Darling Farm filled its dams.
“When you look at it long-term, we would average pumping about 20,000ML to 25,000ML a year,” Cole says.
This year they have 2000 hectares of irrigated wheat. “We will have enough water, if the government doesn’t buy it, to put in a fairly large cotton crop,” he says.
Historic Toorale Station, on the junction of the Darling and Warrego Rivers, is owned by Clyde Agriculture. Managing director John McKillop admits he would be disappointed “to see a beautiful property like Toorale put into non-productive use, but if that is what the Australian community wants, that is the best use for it”. The property has about 14,000ML in storage, which he argues is “an insignificant amount” compared with the 200,000ML that evaporates annually from Menindee Lakes.
Clyde Agriculture has been one of the biggest cotton growers in the country, but years of drought have reduced their crop.
Last year Australia produced its smallest cotton crop in 25 years, at 116,000 tonnes, well below the peak of the $2 billion crop of 819,000 tonnes in 2000-01.
Toorale, like other cotton farms, has always grown other crops as well, but the recent high price of grain has refocused its cropping program.
“We had corn in this year and sorghum, and we now have wheat,” McKillop says.
“We have 6000ha of irrigated wheat and we have about 20,000 hectares of dryland wheat. One of the crops we may grow is cotton, but we grow whatever we can make the best return out of. Per megalitre, wheat this year is the answer.” Queensland’s Cubbie Station, perhaps Australia’s best-known cotton farm, is also on the ACF’s buyback list. Cubbie’s John Grabbe refuses to comment on whether Cubbie is for sale. He is planning to refocus the property on food production. This year Cubbie has 15,000ha planted to irrigated wheat.
Grabbe reckons that will produce 100,000 tonnes of high-protein, high-value wheat, an important contribution to a national crop estimated to come in between 21 and 24 million tonnes this year.
“We are very much now a diversified agricultural operation,” Grabbe says. “Driving it is the demand for food in the world. That demand for food is driving prices up, so it makes these other crops look quite attractive.”
Much is often made of Cubbie’s capacity to store 500GL, but filling that storage is a one in 10 year event. After a number of dry years, the last summer half-filled Cubbie’s dams. “With water we are turning the corner,” Grabbe says. “It is great to be producing food for the world.”
Further downstream Tandou Station, also on the ACF wishlist but not for sale, has made a different decision about its water. Chief executive Guy Kingwill says Tandou has 10,000ML of water for temporary sale or lease this year.
“We would look at where are the highest returns for our water: do we grow a crop or do we trade it?” Kingwill says. Because 30 dry kilometres of channel separate the farm from the water, which is held in Menindee lakes, Kingwill says 10,000ML “wasn’t enough to start operations. You have to fill channels, which take a whack of water. We would have loved to have planted a cereal crop, but my water was marginal.”
So Tandou has put 10,000ML up for temporary trade this year — probably the largest parcel of water available. With prices between $580 and $600 a megalitre, it will be a nice little earner for the company. “Surprisingly, we have had absolutely no inquiry from the environmental groups to buy,” Kingwill notes.
A spokeswoman from the office of Water Minister Penny Wong says the Government is open to talking to any willing sellers of water — including those listed by the ACF — but is not interested in temporary trades.
The big irrigators have come in for trenchant criticism at the lower end of the river system. Cotton, in particular, has been demonised, but the move to cereal production, and a world shortage of food, could change the argument that farms known for cotton growing be stripped of their water.
McKillop says: “You can throw stones at Cubbie Station or even Toorale, but they are not the big issue. The big issues are mismanagement, over-allocation in the southern streams, and over-riding all that is drought. There just hasn’t been the rainfall”.
Credit: Asa Wahlquist, John Stapleton