Logging gets free water but irrigators pay

How’s this quote – the forestry industry’s water take is “worse” for irrigation communities than government buy-backs “because there’s zero compensation for it”. This is from a key irrigation spokesperson. The Australian Conservation Foundation looked at the Goulburn catchment and found the river would lose almost 4 million megalitres in the next century as clearfelled …

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Victorian Government threatens independence of Snowy Scientific Committee

Snowy River Alliance has called on the Victorian Coalition Government to honour the requirements and intent of the Snowy legislation regarding the establishment of an independent Snowy Scientific Committee and has expressed grave concerns regarding the lack of due process. The Snowy Scientific Committee (SSC) is the key independent scientific body required by legislation to …

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New dolphin species discovered in Gippy Lakes

This just shows how easy it is to not see the obvious. Dolphin colonies in Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes have recently been formally recognised as a new species. The Burrunan dolphin or Tursiops australis, is thought to number about 150, but more research is needed. They differ from the other bottle-nosed dolphins …

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New dolphin species found in Victoria

DOLPHIN colonies in Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes have been formally recognised as a new species, researchers say. The dolphins, named Tursiops australis, have a combined population of about 150 and were originally thought to be one of the two existing bottlenose dolphin species. Monash University PhD researcher Kate Charlton-Robb discovered they …

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The Snowy River is still running on empty

In 1999, Steve Bracks’ Labor Party won government in Victoria on a commitment to return 28% mean annual natural flow (MANF) to the Snowy River below Jindabyne Dam. Legislation was passed in 2002 to return 21% by 2012. “However, more than ten years on the Snowy River is still running on empty,” said Mr. John …

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Fire retardants and the dying Lakes

Who ever stops to consider what might be in those bright pink fire retardants the DSE dumps by the thousands of tonnes all over our forests, water catchments, houses, bridges and streams almost every summer? In the desperate situation of a bushfire, who wants to know? Certainly not the government. The plight of the Gippsland …

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Logging strips water resource: ACF

Northern Victoria’s highest water-producing forests would produce 15 per cent more water by the end of the century if logging ceased immediately, a report will say today. The increased water flows would benefit the two rivers most important to agriculture and food production in Victoria: the Goulburn and the Murray. The report, commissioned by the …

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Woodchipping Our Water

The report Woodchipping Our Water assesses how the logging of mature forests in the Goulburn River catchment threatens the enormous water production and carbon sequestration potential of the region.The Goulburn River is one of Australia’s most important and degraded river systems. It supplies water to many regional towns and cities, including Shepparton, Bendigo and Ballarat. …

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Swan culling highlights dying Gippsland Lakes

Over Autumn/Winter 08, farmers were given permits to shoot dozens of native Black Swans who were moving from the Gippsland Lakes’ onto farm paddocks to graze. Why? Because the Lakes have become so sick and contaminated that much of the area is dying, including the Swan’s food, the water grasses. The issuing of permits to …

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The Gippsland White Elephant?

The Gippsland Water Factory is being built to treat and recycle water for industrial use at a cost of $200 million. About 70% of the water to be recycled is planned to come from PaperlinX pulp and paper factory and be reused by them as well. But AP’s PaperlinX has had its water rates frozen …

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