Murrumbidgee Junction Environmental Water Management Plan Murrumbidgee Junction Environmental Water Management Plan Murrumbidgee Junction Environmental Water Management Plan Document Control Version Number Description Issued To Issue Date 1. Draft V1 E. Healy 01/11/2015 M. Cooling 2. (technical Draft V1 review) 3/11/2015 3. Draft V2 E. Healy 09/12/2015 Updated watering history and changed wetland name 4. from Nurrung wetlands to Bidgee Lagoons (Nurrung Wetlands) as per the strategy. J. White 2/2/2018 Citation Please cite this document as: Riverness (2015) Murrumbidgee Junction Environmental Water Management Plan, Report prepared for Mallee CMA, Mildura Victoria Contact For queries regarding this document, please contact: Louise Chapman [email protected] Waterways Coordinator Mallee Catchment Management Authority This publication may be of assistance to you but the Mallee Catchment Management Authority and its employees do no guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purpose and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence that may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. Cover photo: A. Edwards 26/07/2011 in (Bell, 2012). 2 Murrumbidgee Junction Environmental Water Management Plan Table of contents Document Control .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Table of contents ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Executive summary ........................................................................................................................................ 5 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 7 2 Site overview ............................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Site location ........................................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Catchment setting ................................................................................................................................. 8 2.3 Murrumbidgee Junction ......................................................................................................................... 8 2.4 Conceptualisation of the site ............................................................................................................... 10 2.5 Land status and management ............................................................................................................. 11 2.6 Wetland characteristics ....................................................................................................................... 13 2.7 Management scale .............................................................................................................................. 14 2.8 Environmental water sources .............................................................................................................. 15 2.9 Related agreements, policy, plans and activities ................................................................................. 16 3 Hydrology and system operations ............................................................................................................. 18 3.1 Wetland hydrology, water management and delivery .......................................................................... 18 4 Water dependent values ........................................................................................................................... 22 4.1 Environmental values .......................................................................................................................... 22 4.2 Social values ....................................................................................................................................... 32 4.3 Recreation ........................................................................................................................................... 33 4.4 Economic values ................................................................................................................................. 33 4.5 Significance ................................................................................................................................................ 33 5 Ecological condition and threats ................................................................................................................ 35 5.1 Current condition ................................................................................................................................. 35 5.2 Condition trajectory.............................................................................................................................. 38 5.3 Water related threats ........................................................................................................................... 39 6 Management objectives ............................................................................................................................ 40 6.1 Management goal ................................................................................................................................ 40 6.2 Ecological objectives ........................................................................................................................... 40 6.3 Hydrological objectives ........................................................................................................................ 42 6.4 Watering regime .................................................................................................................................. 46 7 Managing risks to achieving objectives ...................................................................................................... 48 8 Environmental water delivery infrastructure ............................................................................................. 52 8.1 Constraints .......................................................................................................................................... 52 8.2 Infrastructure or complementary works recommendations .................................................................. 52 9 Demonstrating outcomes .......................................................................................................................... 55 9.1 Monitoring priorities at the site ............................................................................................................. 55 10 Consultation ............................................................................................................................................ 56 11 Knowledge gaps and recommendations .................................................................................................. 56 References.................................................................................................................................................... 58 Abbreviations and acronyms ........................................................................................................................ 61 3 Murrumbidgee Junction Environmental Water Management Plan Appendix 1 – Fauna species list .................................................................................................................... 62 Appendix 2 – Ecological vegetation classes (EVCs) ........................................................................................ 63 Appendix 3 – Flora species list ...................................................................................................................... 65 4 Murrumbidgee Junction Environmental Water Management Plan Executive summary Environmental Water Management Plans (EWMPs) have been developed for key sites in the Mallee region. The Mallee Waterway Strategy 2014-22 (Mallee CMA, 2014) identified 23 Waterway Management Units (WMU) from 216 targeted waterways in the Mallee. The interconnectedness and commonality of threats impacting on the waterway values were used to group them into planning units. This EWMP has been developed for the Murrumbidgee Junction WMU sub-unit. Hereafter referred to as Murrumbidgee Junction. The EWMP will help to guide future environmental watering activities for this area. Murrumbidgee Junction is situated on the Murray River floodplain, south east of Robinvale near Narrung. Murrumbidgee Junction falls within Murray River Park, with a small area covering part of Wakool Creek crossing through private land. The combination of Lignum Shrublands and the wetland woodland mosaic found at Murrumbidgee Junction provide a great diversity of feeding, breeding and nursery sites for native water-dependent biota. Under pre-regulation conditions the Bidgee Lagoons (Narrung Wetlands) would have flooded in almost every year, providing permanent aquatic habitat within the forest. The mature River Red Gum at this site are providing essential habitat for listed species including Carpet Python and Regent Parrot. Mature River Red Gum are also an important source of fallen timber habitat for Carpet Python on the floodplain. Environmental watering