Recovering The Forgotten River

We need politicians and community champions to demand better quality and quantity of flows in the river for environmental, social and cultural outcomes. As a source of drinking water for our region, a healthy and reliable river is critical to our communities.

We don’t want the Upper Murrumbidgee River to die, so we must act now so that we can protect and restore this Forgotten River for now and for generations to come.

We need the existing environmental water allocated for the Upper Murrumbidgee to be legally protected in the system. This includes changes to rules in the Murrumbidgee Unregulated Water Sharing Plan, so that measuring, metering, and compliance is used to ensure there is no unlawful take of water.

We need the volume of water available for the environment to be increased, based on the best available science, to determine what the river needs for ecological health. This should start with an open and transparent review of the Snowy Water Inquiry Outcomes Implementation Deed.

We need the existing environmental water to be managed in-line with best practice, based on best available information, and applying the principles for environmental water management under the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

We need regional water agencies and utilities to understand and advocate for ongoing water quality and security for the region, especially under a changing climate. This includes Icon Water, which relies on the Murrumbidgee as a third source of water for the Australian Capital Territory.

The community needs Snowy Hydro to demonstrate their commitment to environmental, social and Cultural outcomes for the river as part of their current operations, and into the future as part of Snowy 2.0. This nation-leading project should also be a world-leader on achieving environmental, Cultural and social outcomes.

We need a process which opens up SnowyHydro’s license and water management framework to public scrutiny, allowing examination of whether the current licence conditions are adequate for the river and for regional water security. This should start with an agreement by NSW, Victorian and Commonwealth governments to an open and transparent review of the Snowy Water Inquiry Outcomes Implementation Deed, before the review of the Water Act 2007 (Cth) occurs in 2024.

We need broader community education about the importance of the river to our region and the complex management arrangements involved.

We need a Regional Community Advisory Forum to be established which brings State, Territory and Federal government agencies, and Snowy Hydro, together with scientists, First Nations and community members to ensure regional water management is transparent and based on the best available information.

For the review of the Murray Darling Basin Plan in 2026, our region must seek the inclusion of the Upper Murrumbidgee River as a hydrological indicator site to measure basin flows and health.

Given the state of the Upper Murrumbidgee River, more investment is required to protect threatened species such as the Macquarie Perch.

The Upper Murrumbidgee River needs to have a long-term, coordinated, interdisciplinary monitoring program to understand the water quality and ecological condition and changes over time. This should look to coordinate existing programs and bolster ecological monitoring across NSW and ACT reaches of the river.