Calling All Australians
The Inaugural Biannual Alexandrina Farm Gate Festival 2010
A fun collaboration between farmers and artists whereby amazing creative constructions will appear on, over, within or nearby yours and other farm gates.
So we gathered at the Clayton Community Hall for a sundowner BBQ and meeting. The ideas flowed, gates were volunteered, materials donated, talents disclosed.
Common themes: water, community, environment.
Watch for the festival launch on Saturday March 27th.
The Fresh Water Embassy keeps on keeping on as the voice of those rendered voiceless in the mismanagement of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Launched on June 28, 2009 at Clayton Bay, the Embassy provided a focus for education and protest concerning the building of dam/regulators across the Lower Murray during the 8 week construction phase. During that phase, the Embassy travelled to Port Augusta and Adelaide. Since late November, with an appropriate summer recess over the festive season, the Embassy has been on the steps of Parliament House, Tuesday to Friday, and will continue to have a presence up till the March 20, 2010 state election.
Watch this space — more action planned as the election draws nigh.
Jim McDonald* has penned a fable to accompany the fable posted on January 2o (Manners matter).
Great Goanna, when she heard the story of the Bearded Dragon and the Lesser Dragon, was so upset she breathed fire and smoke.
“Look at Great Goanna,” said all the people waving their empty buckets.
“She’s going to set the whole country on fire. Everything will be burnt and nothing will grow.”
Wondering at the commotion, the Greater and Lesser Dragons poked their heads warily out of the Minor Dragon’s hole and were very fearful indeed.
Lesser Dragon said to Bearded Dragon, “This is terrible, what are you going to do?”
Bearded Dragon flapped his fearsomely spiky pouch and said, “Er, I’ll make a speech”.
“What about?” asked the Lesser Dragon.
“What shall I say,” Bearded Dragon asked Skink, who was busily writing in a notebook.
“I would ask myself what is going to happen to mighty Darling and Mighty Murray. Then I would answer my question and say this is the fault of all the other Lesser Dragons, who have greedily used up all the water. Well, the little that is about.”
“That won’t help, will it?” asked Lesser Dragon.
“Of course it will,” said Bearded Dragon puffing his pouch out even further.
“We could achieve a great deal. We have already set up a Committee and a Commission. We could produce A Report.”
“Spot on!” said Skink approvingly.
“Thank you,” said Bearded Dragon. “It was my idea,” he added.”Then we could involve the community in discussions until the next election.”
“What will you do then?” asked Lesser Dragon.
Bearded Dragon thought long and hard. “We will set up A Timetable….”
At this, Great Goanna let out a mighty roar. Lesser Dragon and Bearded Dragon scurried out of sight into the Minor Dragon’s lair. She poked her long snout into the hole as far as she could. Her bellows were so loud the clamouring of the people with empty buckets suddenly stopped.
Lesser Dragon whimpered and Bearded Dragon’s great spiky pouch flopped and looked like a dried up old cactus and his face turned the colour of blue-green algae.
“I’ll tell you what we’ll DO!” thundered Great Goanna. “We’ll let the water flow through the rivers from the great northern rains and wash out all the scummy waterholes. We’ll let the rivers become healthy again. And we’ll stop those people up-river from taking more than their share. That’s what we’ll DO! Then we’ll get rid of those barriers that stop the flow into the ocean so that the fish can live in the lakes once more.
At that, all the people waved their empty buckets and cheered. “Hooray!” they shouted.
“At last we’re getting some action! Someone shouted, “Three cheers, for Great Goanna!” and all the people cheered their lungs out.
Bearded Dragon was taken aback by this turn of events. He watched Great Goanna go running to the North.
“What’s she doing?” he asked no-one in particular. The people with the empty buckets, who looked like they were going to throw them at Bearded Dragon, shouted as one, “She’s going to divert the waters to Menindee.”
“Why would she do that?” asked Bearded Dragon.
“I know,” said Lesser Dragon, who could see the advantages for his kingdom of all this water flowing into the lower reaches of the Mighty Rivers. “To store the water so that it can be used to flush the river….”
“That’s an excellent idea,” said Bearded Dragon. “In fact, it’s so brilliant, I know I must have thought of it.”
When the rivers started flowing properly again, Bearded Dragon was feeling very pleased with himself. “I have done a wonderful job in protecting the National Heritage,” he boasted. “I wonder if there is a Nobel prize for that?”
Great Goanna, who had been busily clearing channels and water holes along the Great Rivers, overheard this, and glared at Bearded Dragon, whose pouch flopped just a little bit. She kept her thoughts to herself. “Just wait until the next Election,” she muttered under her breath. And then she thought of the Mad Monk! “Oh no!” she said out loud. And little puffs of smoke started appearing at her nostrils as she hurried to finish her tasks before all the Lesser Dragons talked Bearded Dragon into trying to please everyone.
* Jim has loved the Murray since he lived at Echuca as a boy in the 1950s, and has mourned it ever since.
A breakfast at Clayton Bay brought the community together.
Many questions were in the air re water.
Will the 148GL make it to the Lakes?
How is flow measured?
Will water be pumped into the Goolwa Lake?
Is there more water on the way?
Why was there a crane on the regulator?
Is there an election on the way? Yes
In 1983 the Wolta Wolta Homestead, Clare (SA), was burned to the ground in the Ash Wednesday Bush Fires. It is now being restored and the landscaping is a charming mix of sculpture and sprawl.
by Diane Bell
Once upon a time, in the far away Land of Oz, there lived a wax-worm eating Bearded Dragon. He would puff out his spiky throat pouch and talk a lot about working families.
One day, in the auspicious Year of Elections, he gathered his inner circle of Lesser Dragons and delivered a message of hope for Great Things. The last line of the speech, “We will travel to the city of churches and meet with our constituents,” sent the Lesser Dragons into their characteristic position when intimidated: they flattened their bodies and stood erect with mouths gaping.
The word went out across the land. “Come and tell us your concerns. We will be in the burrow of a Minor Dragon who needs our help in this The Year of Elections.”
The citizens came from far and wide to see their Bearded Dragon and Lesser Dragons. They cared little for his wax-worms but they were VERY concerned about his silence on the matter of water in their fair land. It was dry, very dry, sucked dry by decades of mismanagement.
Some of the citizens requested an audience with their leader and inner circle. Before entering the burrow they were subjected to thorough security checks. Once inside they were fed small things and subjected to bad music. They waited.
Other citizens stood outside the burrow. They stood for hours in the special space set aside by their leader for those who wished to protest his regime. He was careful dragon. He paid attention to all details and took care that the burrow was well protected.
The citizens waited at the burrow entrance. The Leafy Sea Dragons were faint. They needed fresh water. They lay down.
The citizens waited.
And they waited.
They had prepared a song for the Bearded Dragon, a clever little number to the tune of “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport”. They had a chant to make it easy for him to remember their message: “Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, Save the Murray.” The ReedWarblers came along and sang more lyrical songs of the universality of connection. It was a jolly gathering.
They all waited.
They carried empty buckets to demonstrate they needed water. They held their banners high.
They waited.
After several hours they learned from the protectors of the burrow entrance that the Bearded Dragon was down the burrow with his Lesser Dragons. The Dragons had a burrow entrance just around the corner from where they had corralled the concerned citizens and Leafy Sea Dragons.
Now the patient citizens were appalled.
Their mothers had taught them to be punctual.
Their grandmothers had taught them to be punctual.
It was VERY rude to be late for important occasions. It was an insult. Bad manners were not to be tolerated in the Land of Oz.
They all knew the fate of Bearded Dragons with bad manners. Larger goannas preyed on them. It was not pretty.
The Year of Elections could be a less than auspicious year. There are many predators in this dry land and they want answers.
148 GL: The River receives its due and more is promised.
Yes, 148 GL and that is water for the environment.
Yes, 148 GL and that is water into the Lakes.
“The River, Lakes and Coorong Action Group Inc (RLCAG) will be watching for each precious one of those 148 GL to arrive in Lakes Alexandrina and Albert,” said Professor Diane Bell
“We will see the difference as the water levels rise. We should see salinity levels fall. About 25 hectares of exposed shore will be covered. The fresh water will be blown across the still exposed soils and help to keep them alive. Every drop counts. We know that from the regrowth from the rains of late last year and whatever rain we get this year.”
“It is not clear how this water will be shared between the lakes because they are separated by a bund. Lake Alexandrina is currently at about 0.9m below sea level and 148 GL would bring us to about 0.6m below sea level. Lake Albert is at around minus 0.7m and in dire straits.”
“This water is too late in the season to see spectacular impacts but, by Spring 2010, we should reap the benefit of this water in terms of the capacity of the ecosystem to recover. So this water is part of a larger process.”
“The decision to deliver 148 GL of fresh water to the environment puts off the building of a weir across the River Murray below Wellington at Pomanda Island and should silence calls to open the barrages and flood the lakes.”
“It appears there is now a better understanding that the Murray-Darling system must be administered as a whole and an acknowledgement that because rivers die from the bottom up, the health of the Lakes is critical to the health of the whole system.”
“But it also appears we still do not have an independent authority that can manage this complex interconnected system in the interests of the River as a whole. Come the next flood will we be scrambling again and watching another stand off between states and, what happens if the next flood is after the election?
Continued from previous post — the road trip/fact finding missiom of Independent MLC, David Winderlich and Professor Diane Bell.
![January 16-18 2010: Menindee Lakes Road Trip](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2680/4291488203_b10f5ba5ca_s.jpg "David Winderlich "captures" a water goanna on the road between Menindee and Wilcannia. Photo Diane Bell")
On Sunday January 17 we trek up the Darling River from Menindee to Wilcannia. We meet up with the geologists on the survey near Three Mile Creek and call into a local homestaed.
The wetlands and billabongs are filling up. The wide brown Darling is on the move. Eight metres of it at Wilcannia. David and Diane take turns at wading in and try to figure out the video camera. “Is it recording?” “Ah Choo,” exclaims David and the metre registers.
Wilcannia is depressing as a town. One store, No fresh food. Nothing from which one make a home made meal and its 150kms to Menindee.
Monday January 18 and the media is interested in the photos that David and Diane have been filing and want more. The politician and professor crank up their technology. Cars need a work station bench on some kind they decide as they balance lap tops and phones and cameras and batteries run out.
The arithmetic and mechanics of Menindee is becoming clear and David and Diane begin drafting Media Releases.
Here it is good to look at the maps of the Menindee Lakes system and know their capacity.
Only Lakes Wetherell and Pamamaroo are going to be filled with the 600-800GL flowing down the Darling River. There was already 100 GL is Wetherell which is not really a lake but rather the Darling River re-engineered with levee banks and regulators and weirs.
Lakes Menindee and Cawndilla are too dry and it would take a massive amount of water to soak and fill them.
Lakes Wetherll and Pamamarro can be surcharged to 610 GL.
Once the water in the Menindee system as a whole reaches 640 GL, the lakes come under the control of the Commonwealth (Murray-Darling Basin Authority: MDBA) and do not revert to NSW until they drop to 480GL. It is clearly not in the interests of NSW to exceed 640 GL and it is impractical to do so given the state of the bottom two lakes.
So we have between 700 and 900 GL in the system as the water comes through the Menindee Lakes and 610GL of that could be retained but those operating the lakes say they will not hold more than 480GL. So do the arithmetic. At the lower end of the scale there is 220 GL that could come down the Darling to the Murray and thence to Lakes Alexandrina and Albert and 420 at the higher end.
The outlets from Lakes Pamamaroo and Wetherell are open and water is already coming down.
South Australia is promised 148 GL into Lakes Alexandrina and Albert as an environmental flow.
The pollie and the professor consider it was a worth while trip.
Too many stories. Too much spin. Could it be that complicated?
Independent MLC David Winderlich and Professor Diane Bell set out on Saturday on a road trip to Menindee Lakes to find answers.
“We wanted to see for ourselves just what was happening with the flood waters coming down the Darling River, talk to local people and try to understand what could be done,” said Diane. “A kind of people to people mission in the interests of the health of the River.”
First stop Terowie where David’s wife Deborah has been working with locals on a Museum of “ found art” and Diane’s daughter, Genevieve and partner, Josh, are renovating an old stone cottage. “We will return, “ they said and headed to Yunta for an alfresco lunch of Diane’s homemade bread, garden veggies, Fleurieu ham and lots of hot tea.
Willy willies churned the red sand, salt bush, flood plains, wind turbines clustered on ancient hills. David pointed out local features.
“How can one live sustainably in this country?” David asked. Get rid of the methane producing critters. Kangaroos are low emitters, but hard to farm. Emus are on a par with goats. Camels and cattle are really bad. Travelling with an internet connection means such questions can be answered easily.
“I saw water in that creek bed,” Diane shouts and throws David’s car into reverse. Water indeed. Cameras begin to click. Diane runs down into the water. It is sweet, local rain. Lots of local rain events through this country it seems. The willy willies are intensifying.
“Diane finds water for the Lower Lakes,” David says. “All we need is a pipeline.”
“Would Dean Brown negotiate it for us?” Diane asks.
The next three creeks all have water and the Wawirra is full back up to the railway bridge. David goes in and gets stuck. Gambols down and up a fallen tree to clean off the mud and the team is off again.
Broken Hill late afternoon and a welcome cup of tea with Barney Stevens of DRAG (Darling River Action Group), a briefing on the magic 640 GL and we are off to Menindie Lakes.
The willy willies are intensifying and beginning to join up. Could be a dust storm? The country is bare in patches: drought? Over-grazing? Mismanagement? We see goats and later hear reports of camels.
First stop the main channel between Lakes Menindie and Pamamaroo. It is dry but spongey to the step. David and Barney walk across the dry bed while Diane ventures onto the railway line.When do the trains run? she asks. “You have 30 seconds to get off when they do,” says Barney.
We walk the edge of Lake Menindee, 272 square kilometres of dry lakebed. Barney stands into the bank to show the level to which the lake would be surcharged in times of flood. We can see the lines of growth of the levels to which this lakes has filled.
We track up the chain of lakes from Menindie to Pamamaroo and stand at the point where the water is gushing through the regulator from Lake Wetherell to Lake Pamamaroo. “That’s the money shot,” says David as we photograph the water that is backing up in Lake Wetherell and being discharged into the Pamamaroo and spreading out across that lake bed. There is a patch of residual water on the north side of the lake but the new fresh water is finding its way into the little gullies of the lake bed. The pelicans are arriving but there is not as prolific bird like as one might expect. Are they all at Lake Eyre? Too late in the season? Haven’t smelled the water yet?
An Open Letter to the Hon Julia Gillard, Acting Prime Minister
Dear Julia Gillard,
We congratulate all who have argued that the floodwaters currently coursing down the Murray-Darling River should flow to the sea.
It is in the interests of the Murray-Darling River system as a whole that the accumulated salts and nutrients in the lower Murray, Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert are flushed to sea. We know rivers die from the bottom up and our river is ailing.
Much has been promised. Will this be the week we made history, or the week we continued mucking around with the Murray?
Monday: We sweltered and pondered the “Rules are rules” rhetoric regarding the fate of the floodwater. It began as a cyclone in WA. Rain drenched Queensland, NSW, the NT and SA. Let it flow to the sea. Let it do the work that floods do, we said.
Tuesday: Good local rain. We asked you to take a stand for the health of Australia’s River. These floodwaters are our opportunity to reset the ailing system. The cure, fresh water, is in your hands, we wrote. Let it flow to the sea.
Wednesday: Refreshed by the cool change and delighted by the news that the NSW and SA Premiers had come to an “in principle agreement” for “reasonable environmental flows” to come down to Lakes Alexandrina and Albert, we anticipated an announcement at the close of your meeting with the Basin Official Committee (BOC) in Canberra.
But silence.
Senator Penny Wong, Climate Change Minister, said the states had achieved a “key milestone for the sustainable future of the Murray-Darling Basin …with the signing of Water Management Partnership Agreements.” But where was the water for the river?
“This agreement sets the framework for our investment in irrigation infrastructure to help our farmers and regional communities and protect food security.’’ But what about the river? Don’t farmers and communities also need a healthy river?
Thursday: We are at Code Catastrophic with the River Murray, Lakes Alexandrina and Albert.
Sunday: We watch the water arrive at the Menindee Lakes, NSW. Does the much-vaunted cooperative approach with the states deliver an outcome for Australia’s River or do we drown in a flood of rhetoric?
The health of the River is in your hands.
