The Murrumbidgee catchment and the Long Term Water Plan explained

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ISBN 978-1-925755-95-4 OEH 3019/0201 May 2019

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Contents

The Murrumbidgee catchment 1 The Murrumbidgee’s freshwater assets 1 Managing water in an altered catchment 2 Introducing the Murrumbidgee Long Term Water Plan 3 Background to Long Term Water Plans 3 Development of the Murrumbidgee Long Term Water Plan 3 Water for the environment 4 Management strategies and complementary investments 5 Monitoring and evaluation 5 How will the Long Term Water Plan be used? 5

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Straw-necked ibis. Photo: Vince Bucello The Murrumbidgee catchment and the Long Term Water Plan explained

The Murrumbidgee catchment

The Murrumbidgee catchment in southern New South Wales (NSW) covers more than 81,527 square kilometres and forms part of the Murray-Darling Basin. The traditional owners of the Murrumbidgee are the Barapa Barapa, Muthi Muthi, Nari Nari, Ngarigo, Ngunnawal, Nyeri Nyeri, Wadi Wadi, Walgalu, Wamba Wamba, Weki Weki and Wiradjuri Nations. They maintain their connection through sites of cultural and spiritual significance, and through living, fishing, hunting and working along the river. Today, around 550,000 people live in the Murrumbidgee catchment. Canberra, in the ACT, is located in the east of the Kia Lake. catchment. In NSW, Queanbeyan, Wagga Wagga, Cooma, Photo: Vince Bucello Tumut, Leeton and Griffith are major centres within the Murrumbidgee catchment. The Murrumbidgee’s freshwater assets The Murrumbidgee River begins on the Monaro Plateau near Cooma and flows westerly toward its junction with the Murray River near Balranald. It supports a range of water-dependent ecosystems including instream aquatic habitats, riparian forests, and floodplain watercourses, woodlands and wetlands. The Murrumbidgee floodplain provides a mosaic of habitat types, including permanent and temporary wetlands and terrestrial habitats. The rivers and wetlands of the Murrumbidgee catchment are important water resources for agriculture, tourism and towns. They also support threatened and iconic species such as Australasian bitterns, brolgas, southern bell frogs and fishing bats along with native plant communities such as reed beds and spike rush. The Murrumbidgee catchment includes 16 wetlands that are listed in the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia, including the Fivebough and Tuckerbil swamps, the Mid Murrumbidgee Wetlands and the Lowbidgee Floodplain.

1 The Murrumbidgee catchment and the Long Term Water Plan explained

Managing water in an altered catchment The health and condition of the Murrumbidgee’s freshwater assets is largely driven by river flows that connect river channels, anabranches, floodplains and wetlands. Flows that provide these connections support organic carbon transfer and nutrient cycling, trigger movement and breeding of native fish and waterbirds, and directly impact vegetation condition and habitat availability. River flows in the catchment are regulated by a number of dams, with Burrinjuck and Blowering being the largest. The Murrumbidgee River is one of Australia’s most regulated river systems with 26 storage or diversion structures along its length. The condition of the catchment’s riverine and floodplain ecosystems, and the plants and animals they Milfoil. Photo: Vince Bucello support, has declined considerably because of these developments. In recent years, the NSW and Australian Governments have increased the amount of water dedicated to supporting healthy rivers and floodplains in the Murrumbidgee catchment. Water managers are working closely with river operators and local communities to deliver this water where and when it is needed – providing benefits for plants, animals and people. During dry years, water management is focused on maintaining the function of river channels and high priority wetlands. In wet seasons, water is managed to enhance the effects of natural flows to improve ecological health and resilience and provide opportunities for plants and animals to reproduce.

2 Kia Lake, Gayini-Nimmie-Caira. Photo: Vince Bucello The Murrumbidgee catchment and the Long Term Water Plan explained

Introducing the Murrumbidgee Long Term Water Plan

The NSW Government’s Long Term Water Plan (LTWP) for the Murrumbidgee is an important step; identifying the requirements for maintaining and improving river, wetland and floodplain health in the catchment, and recognising its connection and contribution to the overall health of the Murray-Darling Basin. Background to Long Term Water Plans The Basin Plan establishes a framework for managing environmental water at the Basin and catchment-scale. The framework is designed to ensure environmental water managers work collaboratively to prioritise water use to meet the long-term needs of native fish, water-dependent native Egret. Photo: Vince Bucello vegetation and waterbirds and co-ordinate water use across multiple catchments to achieve Basin-scale outcomes. The Basin-wide Environmental Watering Strategy (BWS) and LTWPs are central features of this framework. The BWS establishes long-term environmental objectives and targets for the Basin and its catchments. Catchment-scale surface water LTWPs identify strategies that can be applied locally that will contribute to the achievement of the expected BWS environmental outcomes. Development of the Murrumbidgee Long Term Water Plan The Murrumbidgee LTWP is one of nine plans being developed to cover the NSW portion of the Murray–Darling Basin. Its development included six main steps. • A catchment-wide stocktake of water-dependent environmental assets and ecosystem functions that are recognised internationally; natural or near-natural; provide vital habitat; and/or can support threatened species or communities, or significant biodiversity. • Determining specific objectives and targets for native fish, water-dependent birds, vegetation and frog species and ecosystem functions in the Murrumbidgee. • Defining the environmental water needed to sustain and improve the health and/or extent of priority environmental assets and ecosystem functions. • Identifying potential management strategies to meet environmental water requirements. • Identifying the risks and constraints to meeting the long- term water requirements of priority environmental assets and ecosystem functions • Identifying investments to address these risks and constraints.

3 The Murrumbidgee catchment and the Long Term Water Plan explained

Water for the environment The Murrumbidgee LTWP contains ecological objectives and targets for priority environmental assets and ecosystem functions. The Basin Plan defines priority assets and functions as those that can be managed with environmental water. Ecological objectives have been identified for native fish, native vegetation, waterbirds, frogs and functions such as river connectivity. These were chosen because they respond to flow and are good indicators of river, wetland and floodplain systems health. The objectives reflect the current scientific understanding of environmental outcomes that might be expected from implementation of the Basin Plan in the Murrumbidgee catchment (Table 1). Targets for each ecological objective are set at five, 10 and 20-year milestones to provide a transparent means of evaluating the long-term success of management strategies. All water in the Murrumbidgee’s river systems has a role to play in enhancing the health of the catchment: whether it is water delivered specifically for the environment, water delivered for irrigation, town water supply or stock and domestic purposes, or natural flows.

Table 1 A summary of the environmental outcomes sought by the Murrumbidgee LTWP

Broad outcomes Example objectives Example targets (simplified) To maintain the extent and Maintain and improve the • Improve the extent and condition improve the health of water- viability and extent of river red of vegetation in core wetland areas dependent native vegetation gum and black box of the Murrumbidgee, including the and wetlands communities, lignum Lowbidgee wetlands shrublands and non-woody • Improve condition and extent of wetland vegetation such as non-woody vegetation such as common reed and phragmites spike rush and reed beds To maintain the diversity of Restoration of habitat for • Initiate and support to completion waterbird species and waterbirds to contribute to colonial waterbird breeding events increase their numbers recovery of waterbird • Provide foraging habitat for across the catchment populations across the Murray- waterbirds Darling Basin To maintain the diversity and Increase native fish distribution • Provide improved conditions for improve the population of and abundance, and ensure native fish recruitment and native fish in the catchment stable population structures dispersal in the Murrumbidgee River and wetlands • Reconnect nursery sites with main river channel To maintain and protect a Various objectives relating to • Improve river productivity to variety of wetland habitats instream and floodplain refuge benefit native fish recruitment and support the movement of and habitat, supporting • Provide connection flows between nutrients throughout the river productivity and the lifecycles the floodplain and river to enhance system of water-dependent biota, and carbon and nutrient transfer connecting riverine and throughout the river system floodplain systems.

4 The Murrumbidgee catchment and the Long Term Water Plan explained

Management strategies and complementary investments The LTWP identifies management strategies and investments that will complement the ecological objectives and targets it aims to achieve. They include protecting environmental flows, conserving riparian, wetland and floodplain vegetation, and screening irrigation pumps to protect fish. Monitoring and evaluation Monitoring of past environmental watering events has helped improve the way available water resources are managed to benefit native plants, animals and river functions. This work highlights the tangible outcomes that can be achieved when water is managed for improved river and wetland health. The NSW and Australian Governments will continue to monitor the health of the Murrumbidgee’s rivers and wetland ecosystems in response to environmental watering. Monitoring will: • demonstrate progress towards achievement of the LTWPs objectives and targets • inform the use and management of environmental water • contribute to periodic reviews of the LTWP • provide new knowledge about the Murrumbidgee’s ecology that is relevant to environmental watering. To ensure the LTWP remains relevant and up-to-date, it will be reviewed and updated no later than five years after implementation.

Yanga Creek, Balranald. Photo: Vince Bucello.

5 Photo: Vince Bucello The Murrumbidgee catchment and the Long Term Water Plan explained

How will the Long Term Water Plan be used? The community contributes to river and floodplain health outcomes through the Murrumbidgee Environmental Water Advisory Group (EWAG). The group, whose members represent First Nations, landholders, irrigators, government, water users and independent environmental groups, provides advice on management of water for the environment in the catchment. Input from the EWAG helps ensure the landholder, community and cultural values of the Murrumbidgee area are considered in environmental water management decisions. The EWAG is called upon to inform complex decisions that affect the health of rivers and wetlands throughout the catchment. The Murrumbidgee LTWP will help guide and inform the work of this group. Importantly, the plan does not prescribe how environmental water should be managed in the future, rather it will help water managers and the EWAG make decisions about where, when and how available water can be used to achieve agreed long-term ecological objectives. The LTWP also recognises that the Basin Plan specifically requires environmental water managers to act adaptively by making timely decisions based on the best-available knowledge and monitoring and evaluating the outcomes.

6 Spike rush, Yarradda Lagoon. Photo: Vince Bucello