The Gunbower National Park VMFRP Stakeholder Advisory Group includes community members and forest users from across the local area.
The members are:
● Ann Hodge – previous chair of Torrumbarry Water Services Committee;
● Audrey Dickins – member of Gunbower Island Community Reference Group, Gunbower Landcare and Gunbower District Development Group;
● John Williams – dairy farmer at Torrumbarry;
● Nicholas Rowlands – dairy farmer at Gunbower, member of the Gunbower Island Community Reference Group;
● Shannon O’Brien – of Murray River Adventures Kayak and Canoe Tours, based in Cohuna;
● Stan Archard – retired irrigation business owner, member of Gunbower Island Community Reference Group; and
● John Toll – mixed farmer at Gunbower.
The group, which met for the first time in late April, includes agency representatives and traditional owners.
The Gunbower advisory group will play a role during the statutory approvals process, which is looking to identify the best options for the projects.
VMFRP east project manager Tim Shanahan said the group brought a wide array of experiences and opinions to the first meeting.
“There were some concerns raised, which is great, along with an agreement that the health of the forest is declining, and a real collective desire to work together,” Mr Shanahan said.
“This group is keen to see if the projects can be progressed in a way that achieves the best outcome for the forest and the community.
“These planned projects are a big investment in the local community and will help restore the floodplains and wetlands so future generations can enjoy and benefit from them as much as we all do now.”
The Gunbower VMFRP project proposes works at Cameron’s Creek and the upper section of the Gunbower forest.
At Cameron’s Creek, the project proposes to replace an existing small weir and river track bridge and regulating structure to enable the right amount of water at the right time to be delivered to the creek, Black Charlie Lagoon and Baggot’s Swamp.
Parks Victoria would prefer no irrigation from the creek in a national park, so an alternative supply arrangement is being investigated, as part of the project, for the irrigators currently using the creek.
For the upper Gunbower forest, a pump station is proposed to be built on the Murray River to pump water into a former irrigation channel — Old Straight Cut — and supply water to semi-permanent wetlands and the lower lying areas of the forest that are dependent on regular flood events for the health of understorey and over-storey vegetation.
Pumped water into Old Straight Cut is proposed to be controlled when entering Pig Swamp, the natural creek line that spills into the Emu Hole Lagoon area, and the forest.
In some locations, the existing levees will be used to fully contain shallow levels of water for the environment in Gunbower National Park and they will be monitored and repaired where necessary.
The Gunbower National Park VMFRP project is one of nine in the North Central and Mallee regions aimed at efficiently and effectively delivering water to the water-dependant floodplains, all while keeping irrigation water in the community.
The projects, which are proposed to be delivered by June 2024, will restore and help build the resilience of the floodplains and wetlands to cope with climate change and low river flows, without water buy-back.
The stakeholder advisory group for other local VMFRP projects is being finalised.
More information about the VMFRP can be found at: www.vmfrp.com.au
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