A major new environmental water project on the Lower Murray River will help bring life back to degraded creeks and wetlands at Wingillie Station in far west New South Wales.
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) Environmental Activities Program, funded through contributions from the proceeds of trade, is investing $2.77 million in the project, with an additional $732,000 being provided by project partners.
The project will establish reliable infrastructure to deliver environmental water to key parts of Wingillie Station, a 2,362 hectare conservation property about 50 kilometres west of Wentworth. This will help restore more natural wetting patterns that have been lost due to river regulation and water extraction over the past century.
Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder Dr Simon Banks said river regulation had dramatically reduced the frequency of natural high flows and small floods that once sustained wetlands and floodplain woodlands along the lower Murray.
"Events that historically inundated floodplains in eight or nine years out of ten now occur fewer than four times in twenty years, leaving ecosystems increasingly stressed and vulnerable to salinity and groundwater impacts," Dr Banks said.
"The flooding of 2022-23 offered a glimpse of what is possible when water reaches the floodplain, vegetation flourishes and threatened species responded quickly. This new project aims to deliver more enduring outcomes by enabling inundation of these key sites, as we now know just how resilient these systems can be when they receive water at the right time and in the right way." Dr Banks said the investment would help lock in long term ecological recovery.
"This project will allow us to move from relying on rare natural flooding, to delivering water on a planned, repeatable cycle. It will give wetlands, floodplain woodlands and threatened native species a much better chance to recover and persist."
The project will unlock habitat of up to 21 kilometres of drought stressed creeks and around 75 hectares of ephemeral wetlands that have been impacted by river regulation, grazing and clearing over the past 150 years.
Key works include:
- Establishing new water access points on Wingillie Station's Murray River frontage to enable delivery of environmental water to the Mungo Creek system and associated wetlands.
- Installing modern fish protection screens to prevent invasive carp from entering newly watered habitats.
- Constructing a solar powered pump to distribute water into shallow wetlands, providing a low emissions solution for reaching vulnerable habitats.
- Upgrading and lining earthen dams to create predator free refuge habitat for critically endangered fish and nurseries for aquatic plants.
- Developing an Environmental Water Delivery Plan to guide future watering and restore more natural seasonal patterns of inundation.
The project will directly benefit several threatened native fish species, including the nationally endangered Murray hardyhead, which was first reintroduced to Wingillie in 2018, along with southern pygmy perch, southern purple spotted gudgeon and olive perchlet. The southern bell frog and regent parrot, both listed as vulnerable under the EPBC Act, are also expected to benefit from healthier wetlands and floodplain vegetation.
Wingillie Station has been managed exclusively for conservation since 2016 and provides a rare, privately managed foundation for long term environmental water management.
Dr Banks said strong partnerships were central to the project's success.
"This is a genuine collaboration between conservation landholders, ecological experts, Traditional Owners, water managers and delivery partners," he said.
"By working together, we can deliver environmental water where it's needed most and ensure these landscapes continue to support life well into the future."
The project is being delivered in partnership with Hazel L. Henry Farmlands Nature Refuges, Nature Glenelg Trust, Millewa Pumping, Murray-Darling Wetlands Working Group, NSW DPI Fisheries, Environmental Construction Ops, and the Barkandji Native Title Group, whose rangers will contribute on ground expertise and cultural oversight.
