Watering of wetlands on Indigenous Country in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia
Milo Costanza-van den Belt
A * , Rohit Rao A , Matthew J. Colloff A , Jamie Pittock A and Bradley Moggridge B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
B Centre for Applied Water Science, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT 2617, Australia.
Marine and Freshwater Research 73(12) 1413-1425 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF22155
Submitted: 13 April 2022 Accepted: 18 September 2022 Published: 13 October 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Context: Water managers in the Murray–Darling Basin increasingly recognise the cultural and environmental benefits generated by Indigenous co-management of environmental water. However, traditional knowledge and values are subsidiary to western technical and scientific perceptions when prioritising environmental water use.
Aims and methods: We mapped the locations and volumes of Commonwealth Environmental Water Office environmental watering events onto the wetlands within the land area represented by different state-determined Indigenous organisations and discuss how this relates to the varied nature and extent of Indigenous engagement in environmental watering decisions.
Key results: Between 2014–15 and 2018–19, one organisation had nearly 13% of the area of wetlands watered, but the average was less than 3%. In all, 18 of the 26 organisations received no environmental water.
Conclusions: The distribution of environmental flows does not meet the cultural needs of Indigenous nations due to physical restrictions and policy limitations. Yet, there are clear environmental and cultural co-benefits where Indigenous peoples have developed partnerships with environmental water managers. Developing stronger partnerships and increasing Indigenous water entitlements from the current 0.17% of issued entitlements would maximise these benefits in catchments where environmental water is prioritised.
Implications: The reviews of the Water Act and the Basin Plan scheduled for 2024–26 present opportunities to implement reforms.
Keywords: co-management, cultural flows, environmental water, Indigenous water ownership, Murray–Darling Basin, participatory resource management, water partnerships, water policy.
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