Bidgee Bites: Upper Murrumbidgee Explained
Welcome to Bidgee Bites: Upper Murrumbidgee Explained -a short video series unpacking what’s really happening along our Forgotten River.
Bringing together insights from Jamie Pittock, Professor of Geography at the Australian National University, and Anna Maguire, a specialist in water policy and river management, this series draws on research, policy experience, and on-ground observation to examine how the Upper Murrumbidgee is managed, and where those settings are falling short.
Across the series, Jamie and Anna travel from the river’s headwaters to below Tantangara Dam, through Cooma and into the ACT, tracing how water is diverted, shared, and used along the system.
If you want to understand why we are so concerned about the Upper Murrumbidgee, and the challenges we need to address — Bidgee Bites offers a clear, grounded explanation of what’s happening and why action is needed for our Forgotten River.
Bidgee Bite I: What is happening to our river?
In our first bite, Jamie and Anna introduce the challenges facing the Upper Murrumbidgee River, explaining how changes to flow, climate, and management have affected its condition.
The river’s alpine headwaters play a key role in supporting water supply, river function, and biodiversity across the Murray-Darling Basin. This part sets out why the river matters and why its management needs to be reconsidered.
Bidgee Bite II: Why isn’t enough water flowing?
Jamie and Anna stand below Tantangara Dam to examine a critical issue: the Upper Murrumbidgee River is receiving only a fraction of the water it needs. They reveal how water is diverted through the Snowy Scheme for hydroelectricity, leaving far less for the environment than is required to replicate its natural snowmelt events.
This part looks at how that small Tantangara dam water outlet constraint shapes the river today, and why increasing flow capacity at the dam is a key part of any meaningful restoration.
Bidgee Bites III: The water allocation rules
In our next edition of Bidgee Bites, Jamie and Anna are sitting on the weir at Mittagang Crossing near Cooma, where water is divided between town supply, downstream users, and the environment.
They exaplain how the rules that have been written for the Upper Murrumbidgee and other alpine rivers is deeply problemmatic - water released for the environment can also be counted toward human use, making it difficult to ensure the river receives dedicated flows. With most water still diverted upstream for hydroelectricity and demand increasing, this part examines how current rules set priorities and where they fall short.
Bidgee Bite IV: Why are current releases not enough?
In the mid reaches of the Upper Murrumbidgee Jamie and Anna talk about the multiple uses of water. Jamie is on the bank of the Murrumbidgee River between Tantangara Dam and Canberra, with irrigated farmland visible alongside the river. Along this stretch, water released from the dam supports existing licensed uses, including irrigation.
This bite looks at how the system is currently operating and why increasing the volume of water released from the dam is central to improving outcomes for the river.
Bidgee Bites V: Why doesn’t the ACT have a say?
At Angle Crossing, where the Murrumbidgee River flows from New South Wales into the ACT, Anna and Jamie explore how decisions made upstream at Tantangara Dam extend well beyond the borders of NSW.
This bite highlights how the ACT is not part of the agreement that governs how its largest river is managed, and the problems this creates given the Upper Murrumbidgee is our third source of drinking water, for recreation, for cutural connection and for native species like Murray cod and Macquarie perch.
Bidgee Bites VI: A failure of river management
In our final Bidgee Bite, Anna and Jamie are at Tharwa in the ACT, standing in a section of the Murrumbidgee River where the water is so low you can play a game of frisbee, but you can’t swim!
This bite shows what low flow looks like in practice and why maintaining adequate flows is critical for the river and the health of all that depend on it. The state of the river highlights the urgency of our Forgotten River campaign.