Water and healthy rivers blog posts
2012 -
make or break for the Murray-Darling!
This year is going to be one of big questions and decisions for our biggest river system. The questions is - will the final version of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA)'s Basin Plan do enough to keep our rivers healthy in the...
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2011
a year in the life of the Healthy Rivers campaign
And what a year it’s been! I came back to work in January in the midst of some of the biggest floods Victoria has ever seen. My first appointment was a trip to Bendigo to present to the a target="_blank" href="http...
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Here's to a Christmas
without dead fish
A little over a year ago, the beach town of Anglesea had dead fish floating down its river.
While some people pointed the finger at the Alcoa's coal...
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What will the Basin Plan deliver
for the Goulburn River?
The Goulburn River provides more water for use in Victoria than any other river except the mighty Murray itself. In 2009/10 a whopping 974 billion litres was...
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It's passed!
We officially have a price on pollution!
Today I went to Parliament House in Canberra to witness the carbon price legislation being passed into law. It was a humbling and exciting occasion.
The day began with the final speeches in the Senate. The public gallery...
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Join the Backwards March
Call on the Premier to stop taking Victoria backwards on our environment
It’s fair to say that the Baillieu Government’s performance on the environment this past year has been anything...
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What’s non-strategic
about saving a river?
Federal government water buyback is paying dividends for our river systems — since 2009 the government has delivered almost 600 GL of life-sustaining...
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On Friday, 18 keen Environment Victoria supporters
visited the Barmah National Park, on the banks of the Murray
It was a chance for the group to experience the issues first hand, and hear a range of perspectives on Barmah, the Murray River and their future.
First up was Hilda Stewart, one of the national park's...
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Last week I was in Sydney being briefed on the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan
and it wasn't pretty
Last week environment groups from around the Basin, from Adelaide, to Broken Hill to Brisbane, got together to hear the ‘current thinking’ on the Plan to fix the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin.
The Murray-Darling Basin...
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Our volunteers
think we're great!
We'll that's what they said at our volunteer night last week, although admittedly we did supply them with alcohol and snacks before hand…
We had 20 or so people come along, some of them existing volunteers keen to meet each other and...
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Time for a reality check
in the Murray-Darling basin
There’s been a lot of talk about the numbers in the Basin Plan, the actual volume of water that it will recommend returning to the river systems of the Murray-Darling.
a href="http://www.smh.com.au/environment/water-issues/river-...
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All about yabbies
Environment Victoria volunteer Kaye Cleary takes a look below the surface
Where are our yabbies going and are they getting smaller? Do you have childhood memories of sitting in the shade by the waters edge, pulling out yabbies; big monsters, fat-tailed mums-to-be, and...
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The Fight for the Murray-Darling Basin
Greenies vs ?
The debate on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is often presented as the ‘greenies’ versus the ‘struggling Aussie farmer’. But how accurate is this?
Recently there's been a lot of media coverage about large corporations and...
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STILL sitting, wishing, waiting
for the plan to save the Murray
Just as my last blog post went live suggesting a plan for how we use water in the Murray would be released in August, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority a href="http://www.mdba.gov.au/media_centre/media_releases/progress-on-proposed-basin-...
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What do you do when there's too much...... sewage?
If you're Barwon Water, you pump the excess recycled water into the creek
Bannockburn is a picturesque township 20 km west of Geelong. Nestled next to the town is the steep sided valley of Bruce’s Creek, home to birds, koalas, echidnas and stately gums. What could...
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Sitting, waiting, wishing
for the Basin Plan
Excitement is growing here in the Healthy Rivers team about the imminent release of the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
We hear that is should be made public by mid August, and we are very curious to know what it is going to propose for our...
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Last chance to pull Murray-Darling back from the brink
How quickly we forget
Last year, the Murray River and its tributaries were on the brink of collapse because of a dire lack of water. Yet we've allowed one good season of rain and a political water-fight to almost wash that memory away.
From the late 1990s to 2010...
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Check out our
billboard on Australia's life-blood
I thought it was about time we told you about our billboard on saving the Murray. If you're a politician you probably already know about it, because you pass it on the Tullamarine Freeway every time you head to the airport for a...
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G'day and welcome (err, to myself)
I'm Environment Victoria's new Healthy Rivers Campaigner...
Taking over from Amelia Young, who after a fine effort of sticking up for our rivers is off on other adventures.
I've been at Environment Victoria for a few years now, as part of the a href="http://www...
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Moorabool River
Working together to secure flows
The month of June has seen two significant improvements in environmental water for the Moorabool River, long considered the state's most flow stressed.
The first was on 6 June when pumping from the Batesford Quarry commenced,...
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Windsor Inquiry
Reports
The Windsor-chaired Inquiry into the socio-economic impacts of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan was announced in the aftermath of the release of the Guide to the proposed Basin Plan last October. In a bid to calm irrigator hysteria (who could forget the books burning...
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You may have heard the shocking news
that that the Victorian Government is slashing Environment Victoria’s funding
We don’t know exactly how much funding we’ll lose but here’s what we know so far.
On state budget day, the Transport Minister pulled our funding to engage...
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Science and the Plan
Tracking the ordeal of science and the Basin Plan
more“Worst-case scenario is that in five or six years' time when we have another drought we'll be in the same situation as we are now, we'll be seeing the same impacts as we have seen in the recent drought....
MYTH: The Water Act is too focused on the environment – social and economic impacts have been left out
FACT: The Act states that the amount of water that can be taken out of rivers must be environmentally sustainable and based on best available science. Social and economic considerations are an essential part of deciding how to deliver and implement new levels of water extraction,...
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Reconnecting floodplains
with rivers
There’s been a lot of water in northern Victoria in the last year and some of it has remained trapped on low lying land for months. This has been a big problem for farmers trying to access their land but has great potential for environmental benefits...
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Paddling with the Water Minister
at the gorgeous Hattah Lakes
Last week I had the exciting opportunity to spend a day with the federal Water Minister, Tony Burke, giving him a first hand experience of the beautiful environment at Hattah Lakes in north western Victoria and showing him the benefits of...
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Will the state government reveal its environment agenda
at next Tuesday’s budget?
Budget time is where the real priorities of governments are revealed. As has been said many times, real commitment is demonstrated when you put your money where your mouth is!
To date, the...
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April 22nd- 41 Years of Earth Day
The times, they are a-changin… Are we?
Earth Day, so the story goes, was born out of the aftermath of a devastating oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California in 1969.
The spill, like others of its kind, had tragic consquences for marine...
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MYTH: Returning water to the environment will cost jobs and destroy regional communities.
What we need is a balance between economy and the environment.
FACT: For a healthy economy we need a healthy river.
It was the Danish Worker’s Union that first coined the term “No Jobs on a Dead Planet”. Now it is used by environmentalists,...
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The Save the Murray campaign is picking up steam (Echuca style)
and we’d love you to jump on board
We’ve officially launched our Save the Murray campaign into the world of Facebook and we’re just a little excited.
This month, help us spread the ...
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