Graziers must lift water game

Out on the Macquarie Marshes, downstream of Warren, graziers have a saying:  Fat ducks mean fat cattle.

Last week, NSW Environment Minister, Bob Debus, announced a release of 30,000 megalitres of water for the marshes.

With 88 per cent of the marsh area privately owned and grazed, much of this water will go to fatten cattle as well as hopefully maintain ecological biodiversity.  Marsh graziers receive water free of charge as environmental flows, although the government expects upstream irrigators to pay for their water, and from next year the price will be significantly higher.  In fact, if the Marsh graziers paid the same price as irrigators, I calculate they would be up for $3.19 million this year, and $7.55 million next financial year water charges alone.

If they had to buy the associated licences, then this one-off bill would be $465 million.  I am all for multiple use and limited regulation -- if we can have fat ducks and fat cattle at the same time, that's great.  But the community perception is that the marshes are in trouble, and the reality is that some areas are overgrazed.

Over recent years there has been a focus on Australia's intensive agricultural industries (including cotton, rice and sugar) and the environmental impacts of each.  These industries have undertaken audits and developed environmental codes of practice.  The adoption of minimum tillage agriculture has greatly reduced the impact of cultivation on surrounding environments.

The grazing industry has had to contend with bans on tree clearing, but there seems to have been limited real interest in addressing issues of overgrazing.  In the 1940s and 1950s, there were restrictions on grazing and burning in the Macquarie Marshes, including a ruling that reeds could not be burned unless the written consent of the district surveyor was obtained.  Stock was excluded from reed regrowth until it reached a sustainable height, and rookeries (for bird nesting and breeding) were fenced.  These provisions seem to have been forgotten.

While many claim the biggest problem for the marshes is irrigation, according to the most recent water-sharing plan, the marshes now get 85 per cent of natural flow.  Indeed, maps show large areas of reed bed were lost before the Burrendong dam was build as a consequence of altered water flows, overgrazing and burning.

Across Australia, there is an expectation that, in the future, we will all have to pay more for our water, and must continue to use water more wisely and efficiently.

Similarly, the time has come for marsh graziers to lift their game if they want to retain the privilege of free water.

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