The Gwydir Valley Irrigators Association (GVIA) represents in excess of 400 water entitlement holders in the Gwydir Valley.
Our water entitlement holders are some of the most progressive in the world, actively engaged in, and innovating irrigated agriculture. From broadacre crops such as cotton to tree crops such as pecans, oranges and olives, our industry is diverse and productive. We are all acutely aware that reliability of water in the valley is low, and thus strive to Make Every Drop Count for the producer, the community and the environment.
Our vision is for the local irrigation industry, the environment and the Gwydir Valley community to have a secure, vibrant future, with the GVIA recognised as an industry leader.
The Gwydir Valley, centred around the town of Moree in north west NSW is an extremely productive agricultural region. Agriculture employs 20-30% of the population and contributes an estimate 7.8% of NSW’s total agricultural production. Irrigated agriculture is particularly important, contributing significantly to the social and economic wellbeing of the region.
The irrigated olive industry was initiated in the Gwydir Valley over 25 years ago. Olives are a vertically integrated industry
with the nationally recognised Gwydir Grove Olives the largest local producer and processor. In recent years the number of olive
trees has declined as some producers have switched from olives into pecans.
Oranges are a new irrigation industry in the Gwydir Valley, with the majority of the trees planted since 2005. It is currently expanding
with an expected area of 350Ha to be under production by 2020. The citrus industry in the Gwydir Valley is part of the locally owned and vertically
integrated Grove Juice business.
The pecan industry is an important irrigation industry for the Gwydir Valley. Trawalla, owned and operated by Stahmann Farms is the largest
in the region producing approximately 90% of Australia’s pecans. Australia is the fourth largest global producer of pecans. Stahmann Farms operate
the country's only commercial pecan shelling, value-adding and packing plant.
The Gwydir Valley is a diverse broadacre cropping region producing a range of both summer and winter crops. The primary winter crops include; chickpeas,
wheat, barley, and more recently canola. While summer plantings include sorghum, faba beans, mung beans, maize and sunflowers. The majority of the broadacre
cropping area is dryland.
Cotton is the most significant irrigated crop in the Gwydir Valley with an average of 70,000Ha. It is also an important dryland crop with an average of 79,000Ha annually.
The area planted can fluctuate from year to year, being dependant on either available irrigation water and seasonal rainfall.
Lucerne and Hay are niche crops in the Gwydir Valley covering an estimated 4,500Ha. Lucerne is produced primarily on smaller blocks and is irrigated by bore water
entitlements. Hay production includes Lucerne, cereals and pastures.
The turf industry has been a part of the irrigation industry of the Gwydir Valley for almost 20 years, but there are only two producers in the valley. It covers a very small
area of only 20Ha and is irrigated by bore water entitlements. The primary species produced is Buffalo.
The Gwydir Wetlands are a system of terminal delta wetlands, located downstream of the Gwydir River approximately 45kms west of Moree in north west NSW. They are recognised for their
unique vegetation and bird breeding potential. The wetlands are estimated to consist of approximately 6,829Ha of semi-permanent wetland and 77,949Ha of floodplain wetland.
WaterNSW monitor 51 river gauge locations in the Gwydir River and streams(418) using telemetry with data accessible in real time. These sites collect a range of information from flow rate,
discharge volume and river heights and assist WaterNSW in their role of water delivery operators whilst providing an indication of water availability.
All water in the Gwydir is managed by water sharing plans established progressively since 2004. Currently 19% of long term Gwydir river flows and 85% of sustainable yield of the Lower Gwydir
aquifer are available for irrigation. This has been reduced over time following reforms and water recovery for environment.
The are a number of groundwater sources including the Lower Gwydir aquifer used for irrigation and the Great Artesian Basin, including recharge zones. WaterNSW monitor
levels via 26 monitoring sites with data accessible in real time.
Groundwater provides reliable irrigation water, quality drinking water for towns and properties and is one of the region’s major tourism attractions.
Copeton Dam is located on the Gwydir River upstream of Bingara on the north-west slopes of NSW. It is one of the largest inland dams in NSW with a capacity of 1,364,000
megalitres of water. It was initiated in 1966 to provide town water supplies and to boost irrigated agricultural production in the Gwydir Valley.
This month's NSW-DQ webinar focused on "Are You Measurement Ready". A recording is available
here
and responses to questions taken on notice will be available
here in the next fortnight.
Some key take aways:
All water users should check their licence and approvals to ensure the details are correct, and ensure they are following
their conditions.
Water users subject to the mandatory metering condition but eligible for exemption should use the online metering guidance
tool and take a record of what exemption they believe they can claim.
Metering requirements apply to Unregulated users as well as Regulated.
As we will now have a federal election on the 3rd of May 2025, I encourage you to have conversations with people from all different parts of the community to ensure they understand what is important to safegard the Australian irrigation industry. The following links will show you
what the peak industry organisations have as their election policy positions. There are also a number of useful facts about irrigation which
you may be able to utilise in your discussions.
The department sought public feedback in late 2023 on proposed changes to distance restrictions for new or amended bores from other bores or
property boundaries in the Water Sharing Plan for the NSW Great Artesian Basin Groundwater Sources 2020 (the plan).
At this time, feedback from stakeholders indicated that the community needed further information on the proposed changes. To address the
community's questions, we released a Status
Update Document
on 17 February 2025, outlining what’s changing and why. Public feedback on this document and the proposed changes is welcome until 6 April 2025.
Please find included information on a film being screened at the Town and Country Club, 5 Frome St Moree on Friday the 4th of April.
The film writer Leila McDougall will be a special guest at the event.
This screening is proudly sponsored by mcGregor Gourlay Agricultural Services, AFF, NSW Farmers and CWA Moree
The event beguins at 6pm and there is no charge.
The NSW legislative assembly are conducting an inquiry into the Impacts of the Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 on NSW regional communities. The chair is Roy Butler and has been designed to consider the following:
a) the social, economic and environmental impact of repealing limits to the cap on Commonwealth water purchases
b) the risks to the effective implementation of the Federal Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 including unlicensed take of
water and options to address these risks such as rules for floodplain harvesting
c) the impact of Planned Environmental Water rules on the reliability of water allocations in NSW and the Commonwealth's environmental water
holdings
d) the impact of rules-based changes on the reliability of water allocations in NSW, including their impact on different water license
categories
e) the effectiveness and impacts of past water reforms, including community-based water reduction adjustment programs such as the
Strengthening Basin Communities program and Murray-Darling Basin Economic Development Program
f) options to improve future community-based reduction adjustment programs including next rounds of the Sustainable Communities Program
g) any other related matter.
Submissions are Due 14th April 2025.
Today the NSW Government released media
associated with wetlands in the NSW unregulated WSP. There has been significant changes to the proposals, a direct result of the feedback
from each of you. We thank the NSW water Minister and her department for responding to the feedback they received.
There are still however newly prescribed wetlands in the Gwydir. Landholders who still have sites on their land, which they do not support as wetlands have until the 23rd March to provide feedback to the department, as the plan is still subject to change through
the public consultation period.
In addition we will be reinforcing the need for any landholder impacted by these new and all existing wetlands to be directly consulted by
the department. Gazetting a wetland without appropriate consultation is not acceptable.
The updates on the
department website
include mapped wetland areas limited to internationally significant Ramsar listed wetlands, those registered in the Directory of Important
Wetlands of Australia, any wetlands already receiving protection in the current water sharing plans and wetlands identified as ecologically
and/or culturally significant in previously exhibited floodplain management plans.
People can also attend a webinar
from 12.30-1.30pm on Wednesday 12 March 2025 to learn more.
The Basin Plan 2012 was made under Part 2 of the Water Act 2007 (Cth) (the Water Act) to guide the management and sharing of water in the
Basin in a more sustainable way. There have been hugh changes to water management as a result.
Summary of findings:
Four NSW Water resource plans remain to be accredited - the Gwydir is one of them.
All 54 SDL resource units within non-accredited WRP did not exceed compliance triggers in 2022-23
As of June 2024 there had been 2,131.7GL/yr Surface water recovered, only 22GL remained at that stage. 35.25GL/yr of groundwater had been
recovered with only 3.2GL remaining.
This year we expect to see the Sustainable Rivers Audit and the Basin Plan evaluation, these together with the Outlook for the Basin, Sustainable Yields and Discussion Paper will be utilised as an evidence base for the 2026 Basin Plan Review.
Irrigators question recent efforts by Minister Plibersek to consider socio-economic impacts of buybacks
25 February 2025, Canberra, ACT – Irrigators call out Minister Plibersek’s decision to sign off[
on purchasing another 100 GL of water in the southern Basin with questionable procurement processes and deliberately narrow evidence to
support the decision.
“The advice before the Minister to inform the decision is flawed,” said Zara Lowien, CEO of National Irrigators’ Council.
“The additional 170 GL of water (from a 2024 round and this new one), will cause a significant increase in water allocation price of around
7.2% in the southern Murray Darling, and impact some industries particularly hard, such as rice, with an estimated 6.48% drop in water use.”
“The narrow assessment only looked at buying back 170 GL/y of water and apportioned $84 million annual production losses, ignoring that more
than 2,100 GL/y is now recovered with an estimated annual farm-gate production loss between $602 million - $914 million.”
“Can the Minister really say she has considered socio-economic impacts, if the impact assessment is designed to not capture the full
impacts?” said Ms Lowien.
“Worse still, the evidence highlighted the range of government programs aimed at mitigating the known socio-economic impacts but failed to
mention the minimal progress of these other strategies”.
“Updates show there are no ‘new’ efficiency alternatives contracted, no land and water partnerships, and only NSW has signed up to their
flagship program: Sustaining Basin Communities.”
In a clearly political move to win city votes at the expense of regional Australia, the Commonwealth has today kicked off a second buyback
tender in the southern Murray-Darling Basin in 2024-25. NSW Irrigators’ Council CEO Claire Miller said with an election due any moment,
“today’s announcement is clearly intended to try to win city votes while throwing regional communities, farmers and even the environment
under the bus. “Today we learn the Government is full steam ahead to buy up to another 100 billion litres in 2025, on top of the 70 billion
litres from its first tender opened last year. “The minister claims she considers social and economic impacts before approving buybacks.
Considers maybe, but clearly ignores when ABARES says past and planned water recovery wipes $602 million – $914 million every year from
what the farmgate value of irrigated agriculture would otherwise be.
“The one-off $300 million assistance package will not even touch the sides of what irrigation-dependent communities need when the Government
is stripping hundreds of millions of dollars in income from their economies every year.
“We also know that while more than 3000 GL recovered to date is delivering important, localised environmental benefits, more water will not
deliver the Basin-wide step change needed to reverse declining native fish and static waterbird populations, and improve water quality.
19 February 2025, Canberra, ACT – The release of the Auditor General’s report of the Federal Government’s water
buybacks finds the Government implemented a well-paved road of effective process but struggled to find the link between the buyback program
and the intended policy objectives for the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
“Many will glance at the key findings of effective process and give the Government a pat on the back, but the devil is in the detail when
the report goes on to question the link between the buyback program and the intended policy objectives for the environment” said National
Irrigators’ Council CEO, Ms Lowien.
“It found that the buyback program, designed to bridge the gap between current diversions and the Basin Plan’s Sustainable Diversion Limits
(SDLs), was a well-paved road but questions, to where?”, said Ms Lowien.
“Achieving Sustainable Diversion Limits in the Basin was the centrepiece of the Basin Plan, but achieving the broader environmental
objectives requires going beyond just adding water,”
“Government reporting indicates that SDLs are enforced and being achieved– so it’s fair to ask the question, as the Auditor General infers,
why is the Government buying more water and not investing in other solutions?” said Ms Lowien.
Proposals by Water NSW and WAMC would result in water prices to increase by 170% within five years. “Here in the Gwydir valley, we grow
pecans, oranges for fruit juice, as well as cotton, all of which is at risk due to these exorbitant proposed price hikes,” Mr Cush said.
“But this is not just about farmers – households in Moree and other towns will also be hit through council water utilities, as well as other
water licence holders like local golf clubs, rugby and cricket grounds and children’s parks.”
The Telemetry Uplift Program aims to assist eligible water users in the Murray-Darling Basin with compliance to the metering rules, to
ensure water taken from inland regional water sources is extracted fairly, equitably and according to the rules.
By opting in to the program, eligible water users will be offered free telemetry devices, including a local intelligence device (LID) and
data logger.
The $10.5 million Australian Government funded program will benefit over 2,500 eligible water users.
Register your interest by 31 March 2025 to receive further information and make sure you don’t miss out.
The NSW Government is calling for expressions of interest to participate in the Australian Government’s next round of National Water Grid
funding applications, likely in June 2025.
The National Water Grid initiative makes funding available for priority water infrastructure projects to improve the reliability and
security of water for Australia’s regional and remote towns, agriculture and primary industry sectors.
Expressions of interest for the next funding round must be submitted no later than 11:00 pm (AEDT) on Thursday 27 February 2025, to allow
sufficient time to prepare proposals and for the Water Group to have further discussions with proponents.
The pricing proposals put to IPART for review by Water NSW and Water Administration Ministerial Corporation (WAMC) in November 2024 are we
believe excessive. The GVIA have made submissions on both proposals and have had a one on one meeting with the IPART WAMC and WaterNSW
regional and rural water price review teams to discuss our concerns. The team at NSWIC have also prepared a submission and held a meeting
with IPART.
Submissions to the IPART Issues paper are available here
Cotton Australia, National Irrigators' Council and Border Rivers Food and Fibre, met with the Hon Ann Leahy, QLD Minister for Local
Government and Water, to discuss the proposed National Water Agreement (NWA) and provide insights into matters of concern.
Cotton Australia General Manager Michael Murray acknowledged that the current public draft of the agreement was much improved on previous
versions released throughout last year, but there were still matters of significant concern and an overriding question as to what benefit
signing the agreement would bring to a state like Queensland.
“Given the states are being asked to sign this agreement, but no money has been put on the table, it is hard to see why a state would
voluntarily limit some of its decision-making capacity and commit significant resources to developing implementation plans, even if the
proposed NWA was a good document that could be supported by stakeholders,” Mr Murray said.
Key areas of concern include:
The inclusion of the statement giving Indigenous Australians a concept of “Free, Prior and Informed Consent,” but no clarity on what this
actually means within the context of water management, despite the glossary section assuring that it does not mean a right of veto.
The retention of the Risk Assignment framework (currently in the National Water Initiative) that allows, under some circumstances, the
recovery of water from entitlement holders without compensation, where industry holds that if water recovery is required, it should be
through market-based mechanisms.
A lack of recognition of the importance of irrigated agriculture in the draft.
Inclusion of a clause encouraging jurisdictions to move towards “Upper Bound” pricing, fortunately something Queensland rejects.
Cotton Australia will continue to work with the National Irrigators' Council, National Farmers Federation, Queensland Farmers Federation,
and NSW Irrigators' Council to provide feedback to the federal and state governments on how this draft agreement can be improved.
Read More
The NSW Government invites NSW stakeholders who have participated in the Australian Government’s consultations on a new national water
agreement to join one of three online workshops to discuss the updated draft agreement.
The NSW-hosted workshops are an opportunity to:
discuss how feedback from NSW stakeholders has been incorporated into the updated draft agreement published by the Australian
Government in December 2024
share any outstanding concerns ahead of the National Water Committee meeting in early February 2025.
To register for a workshop, please select one of the links below:
Please find included the link to the NSWIC December newsletter.
The GVIA work closely with the NSWIC to ensure we are able to advocate as strongly as possible for our members. This partnership will
continue into 2025, and we thank our members for supporting the NSWIC through their levees.
Issues covered in the newsletter include: Water pricing, the National Water Agreement, WSP and MDBA Constraints roadmap.
Included is the link to the 7 News regional from Thursday 9th January, where NSW National Party leader Dougal Saunders and Macquarie Food and Fibre Executive Officer Michael Drum talk about the implications from the proposals to add hundreds of newly prescribed wetlands into unregulated Water Sharing Plans across the state.
The media talks about lack of consultation with landholders, implications for property sales and valuations and the use of remote sensing to identify the sites in question. It raises the need for compensation where there are impacts to landholders ability to run their
businesses.
1 x 38 ML (megalitres) of Lower Gwydir Groundwater allocation for sale. You can bid in price/megalitre by emailing gvia@gvia.org.au before
5pm Friday 28th February 2025. The buyer will be required to cover the WaterNSW application and dealing fees and the GVIA transaction
fee of $55.00 (Inc GST). Please note as of July 2024, there have been changes to the process for tiaging and assessing groundwater temporary
trades. More
information is available here.
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