Wong opens way to foreign irrigation buyer
Greg Roberts; 4/9/08
One of the biggest irrigation properties on the Darling River is about to fall into foreign hands after the Rudd Government rejected an offer to buy it. Darling Farms managing director Ian Cole said the purchase would have allowed the immediate release of 20,000 megalitres of water into the ailing Murray-Darling system. Mr Cole said federal Water Minister Penny Wong had been interested in buying the property but her office claimed the commonwealth lacked the power. A European consortium was “very interested” in acquiring the property, and would undertake a second inspection today.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24290677-5013404,00.html
Signs of climate change in Murray-Darling Basin
John Wiseman; 4/9/08
The head of the Federal Government’s Murray-Darling Basin management agency says the crisis in the nation’s key river system has the “fingerprints all over it” of climate change, further isolating Brendan Nelson. Murray-Darling Basin Commission chief executive Wendy Craik said scientific evidence showed that climate change was playing out in the drought gripping the lower basin. The Opposition Leader, under criticism from the Government over his declaration that the Murray emergency had nothing to do with climate change, backed away from this position yesterday. While maintaining that once-in-a-century drought and mismanagement of the river were the primary causes, Dr Nelson added: “Climate change and the changes in temperature in recent years … arguably have made and do make a contribution to it.”
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24290672-5013404,00.html
Crops a faded memory on this dried-out oasis
Lex Hall; 4/9/08
It calls itself Australia’s giant oasis, but the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area in southern NSW is looking more like a mirage. The last production Ian Blight had on his 338ha irrigation farm was a wheat crop two seasons ago. “I’ve had to just walk away from it,” he told The Australian yesterday. Mr Blight’s farm, 23km south of Griffith, relies on surface water from the Murrumbidgee River, which in recent years simply has not been available. He has now mothballed the farm where he had previously grown wheat, rice and corn, and focused on his other property - the 4000ha Gum Tree Park - where he runs livestock and grows winter crops, such as biscuit wheat, oats and barley.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24290668-5013404,00.html
Tags: Australia, Environment, Murray-Darling Basin