A man of the land and the river

But they had a lot more than that with Bill O’Kane and I know, because he was one of my loyal readers, until last week. Bill died on March 7.

That’s not to say he learned anything from me – it might have been a case of learning what not to do – but The Boss used to remind me to behave like a gentledog because Bill would likely be reading.

The Boss said the clear waters of the river I swim in every day owe a lot to Bill O’Kane, because one of many things he did while he was running the catchment management show was clean it up.

The Boss says the Goulburn is as clear now, or clearer, than it was 60 years ago – but in between times it got into a terrible mess. It was mostly turbid and full of carp and it only ever ran almost clear when it was low over mid-summer and just a dribble was being let out of Eildon.

Whenever the tributary creeks and streams were running it was a muddy brown soup, caused by soil erosion, stock drinking and stomping around in the creeks, run-off from the tank driving range at Puckapunyal and the old gold-mining run-off from west of the river.

It was a big job tracking down what was causing it all but Bill and his catchment board tackled it bit-by-bit, helping farmers to fence off their streams and drains and provide off-stream watering for their sheep and cattle.

The Boss had been on a couple of river management boards before then and was a little grumpy when Bill’s catchment management authority took them over. He reckoned the expertise would be lost and money would go to other more urgent priorities.

But he was wrong and had to apologise to Bill - on multiple occasions - because Bill found a lot more money for river improvement works than the river management boards ever could.

Things improved dramatically as Bill and his staff set about tackling all the bank stabilising and stream fencing works the old boards could only dream about. There were negotiations with outfits like the Army to look after their run-off at Pucka; and measurement and analysis of other streams entering the river, to see what pollutants were in the water so they could figure out where it came from – then stop it.

Bill’s CMA enlisted the help of schools and landcare groups in the quest for better water quality at the time when landcare was becoming a whole-of-community effort, rather than the province of remote government departments. It was a huge job and took many years but The Boss says we’re now reaping the rewards. The carp are far less prevalent in the Goulburn and the Murray Cod and Yellowbelly have made a strong come-back.

Bill retired from the CMA 12 years ago but kept a keen interest in the river, which he saw every day because he lived on it, in what he considered his tree-house.

He bought an uncommon sense to the arguments that still swirl around management of the river, saying that irrigation should always occur as close as possible to the impoundment source – rather than hundreds of kilometres downstream where a megalitre purchased there was a lot more than the megalitre sold from around here, because of evaporation.

And he had strong views on the mid-Goulburn landowners who are fighting attempts to give the floodplain an occasional drink with environmental water to keep the frogs, the birds and the wattles healthy. He reckoned they all gain a massive benefit from public funding of the Eildon dam to mitigate flooding and give them water when they want it – so they should be keen to repay the compliment now and then for the sake of the river.

And he knew the next big fight would be to stop the Murray Darling Plan using the Goulburn as a channel - and to hold South Australia to account for the appalling waste of water from evaporation behind their artificial barrages on the lower lakes.

But none of that would have stopped him having a joke over a glass of red with The Boss. Which they enjoyed often. Woof!