The unique red gum forest (now Murray Valley National Park) borders the Murray River on the NSW side, and prior to 1990 (and the Murray-Darling Basin Plan) there was no systematic way of capturing the river flows for a thirsty forest.
Mr Murphy refers to the era as "cloak and dagger" watering where they cut embankments to let water through and cleared ‘runners’ through the forest to water the forest floor.
It took some time for the river authorities downstream to work out that some of the water released upstream in the Murray wasn't all getting through — and they began asking questions.
Eventually the Murray-Darling Basin Commission acknowledged the forestry workers’ efforts and gave tacit permission to extract water from the Murray.
In 2000, Mr Murphy was acknowledged for his unofficial watering plans in an MDBC report about how the Millewa and Barmah forests could be better watered: "In NSW, the Forestry Commission began a series of innovative works to improve forest watering using the insight of Peter Paunovic and Joe Murphy."
Mr Murphy and his forester friends had intervened when the river management authorities were still trying to decide how it should be done:
“For many years, the MDBC has attempted to provide water for environmentally sensitiveforest areas on an ad hoc basis, accounting for this water as a loss,” a report in 2000 on water management strategies said.
“However, it has become apparent that a more formal approach is needed for ecologically sustainable management of the Barmah-Millewa Forest’s ecosystems."
The Living Murray program, introduced in 2002, was a multi-state project designed to target the river's prime iconic sites.
The world's largest red gum forest, when flooded, provides an important feeding and breeding habitat for a range of species including thousands of waterbirds.
The forests and wetlands rely on periods of wet and dry, with periodic large floods giving them the resilience to cope with the highly variable Australian conditions.
But the watering program relies on the use of regulators and ‘runners’ (depressions running from the river into the forest) to allow the water into the bush.
Mr Murphy is puzzled by the obstructions that have apparently been wilfully placed in the way of the depressions and runners. He pointed to one in the Reston Bend area and another further south where a large pile of earth filled a waterway behind a regulator.
He believes this sort of neglect is going to make it harder in the future for the river authorities to achieve watering targets.
“It is becoming clear that we have to do more with less water, there are so many demands,” he said.
While Mr Murphy has seen reports on the success of fish breeding in the Murray, he is concerned that one of the popular places for breeding and feeding, the forest, has not been managed well.
“My concern is that the overall ecology of the forest has become a patchwork quilt.”
And as for the forest, the longer it is not given a thorough watering, the greater the risk of a blackwater event.
Mr Murphy has also noticed the pressure on the Barmah Choke, which runs along the edge of the Millewa forest.
His opinion is that one of the main reasons the choke is diminishing in capacity is the number of fallen trees now occupying the river bed and the increasing impact of European carp undermining the banks.
