The Macquarie Marshes is a large non-terminal wetland in central western New South Wales (Australia) recognised internationally as an important breeding site for migratory birds. The marshes are degraded and the popular perception is that upstream irrigators are to blame.
Most of marsh lands are privately owned and used for cattle grazing. There is a southern and northern nature reserve which together comprise 12 percent of the Macquarie Marshes and the only areas where grazing is excluded.
In my last blog post on the Macquarie Marshes entitled ‘Three Pressing Issues for the Macquarie Marshes’ I showed how a levy bank running across the southern boundary of the southern nature reserve is stopping water flooding into the nature reserve.
Some water does flow through the southern nature reserve by way of Monkeygar Creek.
Monkeygar Creek then flows through more private land before flowing into the Macquarie River and then the northern nature reserve.
Up stream of the northern nature reserve there are more levy banks and a rock wall across Monkeygar Creek, diverting more water to private grazing land.
It’s all much easier to understand on a map, which is exactly what Chris Hogendyk has sent me today in the following pdf file, CLICK HERE [3 MB file].
The pdf file includes pictures, published for the first time here today, of the illegal system of levy banks upstream of the northern nature reserve.
Chris Hogendyk was mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald article of two Saturday’s ago entitled ‘Fat Ducks, Fat Cattle – Fat Change’. The article included the following comment:
“Hogandyk is chairman of the 600-strong Macquarie irrigator collective and a man who says saving the marshes is his great passion – “I think this is the one thing in my life where I can really make a difference to history.
… Hogandyk says the marshes still receive an average annual inflow that has only decreased by 15 per cent since Burrendong was built.
“A lot of the marshes were actually lost pre-dam due to grazing and channelisation. We are in danger of losing the marshes because the wrong solutions are being advocated.“
It’s easier to understand on a map and with pictures so CLICK HERE.
Its a 3 MB file, scroll down beyond the map to see the many aerial shots of the levy banks.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Whose private land holds these banks and have we poisoned his dogs yet?
Is Hogandyk suggesting that downstream landholders have no riparian rights and no rights to irrigate for pasture purposes while his upstream group do?
Do these earthworks predate the Burrendong Dam and therefore form part of an existing lawful use that predates Hogandyk’s group of irrigators?
If the earthworks were removed, the water would remain in the creek. What evidence is there that it would then rise to sufficient height to flood the reserve?
I want to see a lot more information before I take any of this on face value.
In the interests of common decency and natural justice, if that is possible in cases of ‘trial by blog’, have the landowners concerned been contacted to provide their side of the story?
I would have thought this goes to the very heart of ethical, not to mention professional conduct.
I’m also keen to hear if the landowners concerned been contacted to provide their side of the story and what that is.
In answer to Ian’s questions, there is no question here of challenging riparian rights, it is challenging people taking/diverting environmental water to create new wetlands for the purpose of grazing. Not an environmental outcome.
The earthworks do not predate Burrendong dam.
If the earthwork/banks are removed the water would flow into the northern nature reserve that is a terminal wetland hence will naturally flow over the land.
These photos have been discussed at many levels with government departments including Department of Environment and Conservation at local level and the Department of Natural Resources at regional and Director General level.
There has also been discussions with the wider community.
Based on the Sydney Morming Herald article the graziers response to the banks is they are there for erosion control. You tell me.
These photos are a bit misleading. They do not indicate direction and the map does not include a scale. The bank captures flow as it comes out of the Southern park on its way North. The stream chanels coming out of that park are clear and show a ‘normal’ water level that is well below the paddocks. And those chanels continue into and through the next park.
The works would only have an impact on the Northern downstream park in comparatively mild flood events. In any normal flood flow the captured water would overflow the banks and continue into the park.
And as the rock wall in the stream is just that, a permeable rock barrier, normal stream flows would pass through it for most of the time and continue in the stream chanel and pass through the park as well.
What we need to know is how high the bund wall is and how much land area is within the bunded zone. At a guess, the total area is no more than 800 hectares which means the total volume captured may only be in the order of 1000 megalitres.
And as it only operates effectively when flows are inadequate for a conventional flood we must assume that only a small portion of this flow would have actually been retained by the park. The rest of it would have flowed through it and into the Darling River.
I do not accept that every drop of water that flows past the irrigators upstream is “environmental” water even though it clearly provides an environmental service as it flows along.
Give me numbers, real ones on flow volumes and frequency, captured volumes and frequency, that can be checked and cross referenced. And lets include a test of relevance in respect of up stream irrigation extractions. Eh?
Ian,
Why don’t you put some effort into some research on the issue yourself. You know I’m always happy to post ‘both sides’.
I phoned Sue Jones before I posted my very first blog on this issue entitled ‘Cattle Killing the Macquarie Marshes’. She never returned my call.
Until very recently the Sydney Morning Herald and everyone else was blaming the irrigators and there was no understanding of the extent of grazing and banking in the marshes.
The investment into dedicated environmental flows for the marshes has been significant (you could research this), and as a tax payer and environmentalist, I would like to know that the nature reserves are getting some water.
Interestingly when I first met Chris and Gill Hogendyk a couple of years ago they were keen to tell me about the marshes but wanted to work with government and the grazing industry and didn’t want any publicity.
They were ignored and the issue of the ‘banking’ until recently has been ignored. The piece in the Sydney Morning Herald quoting from my blog and quoting Chris was an absolute first.
My blog has provided an opportunity for people like you, and the Sydney Morning Herald journalist, to see some pictures and get an idea of what might be happening… how you interpret or deny what I post is up to you…
Ian, the reedbeds you see upstream of this structure are on private land – not the Southern Nature Reserve. Sadly there are few reed beds left in the Southern reserve due to overgrazing, burning and the natural process of streams avulsing. It is also our belief the major bank shown in one of Jennifer’s earlier blogs may have had a major impact on this reserve since its construction around 1984.
Department of Natural Resources modelled numbers (using the IQQM model that drives water policy in the MDBC) suggest the average annual inflows to the marshes has reduced from 460,000ML per annum to 396,000ML since irrigation development – a reduction of 15%.
Average annual numbers can be highly misleading as they do not take account of changes to frequency and duration of flood events but they do provide some level of bench marking.
The argument then is more about where is all the current water ending up and for what purpose?
No, Jen. You and Mr Hogendyk are trying to establish a case and it is incumbent on the proponents to do the work to establish that case.
The map clearly indicates that about 3km up stream from the works is the park. It is visible in one of the photos.
And if you are going to enter a serious public forum with a claim that these and other works are having a serious effect on the distribution of 395,000 megalitres then you need to get some serious numbers.
And Chris still appears to be implying that all flows into and through the marshes are for exclusively environmental purposes and that such environmental purposes cannot be delivered by private wetland.
Ian, I can assure you the reed beds you see in the background are on private land and I’m happy to take you there.
I was not implying that these banks have a serious effect on 395,000 megalitres, these numbers were in response to your question on flow numbers, purely to give you a feel for the reduction that has occurred due to development.
Furthermore, I have no problem with water going to wetlands on private land under natural conditions, what I do have a problem with is:
1.when these wetlands are then heavily grazed thus significantly reducing their ecological value
2.When this water is diverted away from the existing wetlands to grow fodder for cattle in new wetlands. You cannot create new wetlands without sacrificing some other area. Most often this area is the nature reserves.
The debate in the publis arena is always about saving the marshes and to do this requires more water. We are trying to say that by addressing all the on ground management issues such as grazing and water diversions it may be quite possible to have a sustainable marsh with the current water volumes.
Hi Ian,
I think the case has been made … for the reasonable person.
But I don’t think more facts and figures or photos will convince you… because you don’t like the idea of graziers (or foresters for that matter) ever being in the wrong.
If we are to move forward on a range of environmental issues then it is time we stopped assuming that one group, eg. irrigators, are always at fault and that other groups, eg. Greenpeace, are always right.
We need to start objectively looking at the available evidence on an issue by issue basis and we need to be honest to the available evidence.
If Chris H says these banks don’t have a serious impact on the amount of water flowing through, ie that he’s making a point on principle more so than magnitude (which is fair enough) then it takes us back to square 1 in terms of ‘saving the marshes’?.
If the marshes could be in better condition by reducing grazing pressures and unapproved diversions as Chris says, it’s an argument for irrigators to retain “current water volumes”. This is situation normal then: each interest group is pointing the finger at the other.
Pinxi,these banks (and the one pictured is one of many!) do have a serious impact on where the water goes and ultimately for what purpose it is being used. The impact will be very minor in large flood events and major in smaller flows, particularly such as the environmental releases in 2002,2003, and 2005.
In a strange twist, it is more important for the irrigation industry to secure and protect a sustainable thriving marsh, otherwise people will, under the current paradigm, continually look for more water to fix the problem. On the other hand, the bleaker the picture that can be painted by the other side leads to more water to be thrown at the problem. As 90% of the marshes are on private land, this extra water simply increases the capacity to graze. Seems wrong to me.
Jennifer, I find your imputation that my continued questioning is unreasonable and not being honest to the evidence highly offensive.
What has been presented here is a number of photographic innuendos. The critical information of relevance to this case is the actual height of the overflow from the bunded land. For that will determine, if we are given the courtesy of a scale, the actual volumes of water involved and the actual volumes that flow through the site to the park downstream.
And given the absence of input from the landowner, I have every right to test the assertions being made, on his behalf.
And it is a matter of serious scientific and policy debate that we determine which animals, wildlife and domestic, have contributed to the absence of pasture. And it is particularly important to contrast conditions in the wetlands with conditions outside during the same drought and to get an understanding of ‘roo movements from the dryer land into the marshes.
It is also a very important point to recognise that in terms of edible biomass delivery to all dependent species, the grazed pasture has made a greater contribution to getting all the exploiting species through the current phase of their life cycle.
Yet, Mr Hogendyk would never dream of taking photos of his neighbour’s post harvest crop stubble and using the absence of biomass as some sort of ‘proof’ of an ecological crime, of unsustainable agriculture. Why the double standard?
Is this a serious blog or an extension of your ego with a few intellectual glad rags tossed in?
Ian,
And I have found your remarks at this thread to be both offensive and misleading and I found your comments at the earlier thread also on the marshes (see http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/001473.html#comments ) to be very misleading.
So clearly we don’t see eye to eye on this one.
Please substantiate wrt offense and misleading.
My comments stand. You and other readers can reflect on them, research them, judge them, accept them or dismiss them … but I don’t believe they need explaination.
You might also read what anthony had to say at the other thread http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/001473.html#comments
I did read what Anthony said and it was clear that he was leaping to protect a sacred cow.
He appears incapable of getting his head around the fact that wherever a park is located near grazed pasture the pasture will be grazed by animals, insects and birds from both sides of the fence.
And as fodder is consumed, especially if there is a full moisture profile, the resultant re-sprouting of grasses and forbes will be even more attractive to all species. This will continue in a diminishing cycle until nothing is left.
The fauna in the park may roost and shelter there but there is no doubt that they know exactly where the best feed is to be found, on the farmland.
The end result is that the illinformed then look at the difference between the two ground covers and hammer the farmer for supposedly unsustainable practices. It is knee jerk stuff based on image rather than reality.
And Chris has continued with this line above with the assumption that these so-called new wetlands have all been consumed by stock with no benefit being enjoyed by the wildlife who, it appears, are also assumed to reside solely within the park boundary.
I note that Chris has said, “As 90% of the marshes are on private land, this extra water simply increases the capacity to graze. Seems wrong to me”.
And to this one must ask, did the downstream graziers get the benefit of the water prior to the building of the Dam? Did the dam take away part of their existing flows? Did the downstream graziers actually get an allocation when the dam water was allocated? Or do the irrigators take the view that Dam water in excess of environmental flows are for the exclusive use of crop growers?
Message to the Hogandyks.
If you really want to correct the misconceptions that threaten you water allocations then you should correct the fallacy that the pre-irrigation runoff into the marshes was 460,000 megalitres which has since been reduced to 395,000ml by irrigation.
The pre-settlement runoff into the marshes would have been much less than 460,000ml and most likely less than 395,000ml because much of the upper catchment has been cleared for pasture. And this has substantially increased the catchment yield.
But don’t expect the MDB Mafia or the Land and Water audit people to concede this willingly. The work of Robert Vertessy and the CRC for Catchment Hydrology makes it very clear that the switch from forest to pasture increases water yield.
So your group has to determine the exact amount of clearing that has taken place in your catchment and overlay the rainfall data so you can find out the real historical water footprint for the marshes.
There is not the slightest room for doubt that the volume of water taken out of the system by irrigators, given that extractions are only 14% of current runoff, is less than the improvement in yield produced by clearing.
My understanding is that the upper Macquarie is not subject to widespread thickenning like the mulga and brigalow country so cleared land has been more likely to stay cleared.
Let the truth set you free.
I have read with interest and enlightenment
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