Farmers needed to sell their environmental credentials better, to stop conservation values being pitted against production, according to former National Irrigators Council head Tom Chesson.
Mr Chesson said irrigators along the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers should have no concerns at the recent sale of Juanbung and Boyong cattle stations to The Nature Conservancy.
TNC raised $55 million in philanthropic funds to buy the properties, on the confluence of the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan rivers, from landholder Tim Roberts-Thomson.
The property, which contains the Great Cumbung swamp will be managed in conjunction with the 87,000-hectare Gayini Nimmie-Caira property.
That land was purchased for conservation by the NSW Government in 2012 and is now managed by TNC and Nari Nari Tribal Council.
Mr Chesson said farmers were also mindful of conservation values on their properties but didn’t sell their story as well as groups such as The Nature Conservancy.
“I think it’s a bit of a lesson to others, the way they use language in a powerful and important way,” Mr Chesson said.
At the end of the last drought, farmers had watered wetlands on their properties, after small allocations had been made to a number of irrigators.
“They donated the water back to the environment,” Mr Chesson said.
Artificial division
The division between productive and environmental water was artificial and divisive.
“We should be trying to maximise water use in a dual purpose system; we should be trying to improve the productivity of our country, whether it be economical, social or environmental.
“It’s not as simple as saying the water has to be used just for tomatoes, or just for cotton, or just for rice,” he said.
“We need to change the language to dual purpose water.”
He said water entitlement holders could do what they wanted with their allocation.
“If you just want to grow frogs, or whatever, that’s your business – you have an entitlement, you don’t always get water allocated against it, but how you use it is up to you,” Mr Chesson said.
“I don’t think productive water users should be telling their neighbours how to use their water.”
Mr Chesson said rigid rules meant ignoring the dual purpose for irrigation water.
“One thing I sometimes see, and just shudder, is making it black and white, it’s never like that.”
“The problem is that when you make it black and white, that’s when innovation and creative solutions go out the window.”
Organisations such as the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder and TNC needed to be able to be flexible, “because every single season is different,” he said.
“I’ve never seen two seasons exactly the same, so if you codify everything, it will strangle innovation.”
No lock-up
TNC country manager Rich Gilmore said there was no intention to “lock-up” the property.
But he added the organisation would look at buying other properties, of high conservation value, in the Murray Darling Southern Connected Basin.
“There is a lot of freehold land in the southern basin that has a lot of environmental value,” Mr Gilmore said.
Most of the 30,000 wetlands in the region were on farms.
“Good farmers have taken care of those wetlands, over the decades,” Mr Gilmore said.
‘I think we are trying to demonstrate all the different ways you can diversify on farm incomes and help supplement grazing so that you can graze at lower stocking rates and lower intensity.”
He said it was hoped to generate additional income from ecotourism.
"We are paying our rates, which is good for the local council, we are employing people, but there is a role for the permanent protection of some places on the properties, where they are highly important.”
Where TNC could both protect the environment and use the property for agricultural production, it should.
RiceGrowers’ Association of Australia president Jeremy Morton, Moulamein, said it appeared there would be little change, in the land use of the properties, which were currently being used for livestock production.
“The way they’ve been talking about it is that it’s not much different to the way the previous owners have managed it,” he said.
“There’s a slightly different model, in that they have a tourism element, to it, but it’s still going to be a farm property.”
Wrong mentality
It was time to get rid of the mentality that agriculture was somehow less valuable for the environment.
“That’s just not the case.
“Nature doesn’t distinguish between modified and natural landscapes; it’s the ultimate opportunist and will go where the opportunity is.”
He said what stood out for him most about the sale was that it was possible farmers were not going a good enough job of explaining the role they played in conservation.
“It’s curious in that it’s a farming business model, one that goes on every day, but these guys have come in with investors and benefactors.
“I have no problem with what they are doing because most farms have an area on them that’s high in conservation values, that’s fenced off, and if stock are grazed there, it’s only occasionally and at low densities.”
Mr Morton rejected claims the purchase had saved one of the most important wetlands in the Riverina from potential conversion to cotton or rice farming.
“I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life.
“The Great Cumbung Swamp would never, ever be somewhere you would start farming rice, or cotton, or any other crop.
“It’s a big swamp.”
Deniliquin rice grower Michael Hughes said he was not opposed to the setting aside of land, which had significant biodiversity value.
“If it's delivering the outcome they hope to achieve, I’m quite supportive of it, especially if there is going to be a commercial use and its not just going to be locked up, as a set and forget.”
“Is it a feel-good thing, to meet the expectations of city folk, or will it achieve some really good, long-term strategic outcomes?”
He said plans for ecotourism would see increased employment and visitation, which would provide an additional income stream for the local community.
“When times are tight, as they are now, the first thing I do is take my hands out of my pockets.”
He said he hoped there would be community consultation and the new owner would release its plans and targets.
“It’s not just a matter of buying land, locking it up, and everything goes back to the way it was.”
He said he wasn’t concerned that organisations, such as TNC, were buying land in the area.
“The one thing we don’t have is a shortage of land,” he said.
“To present an argument that it’s going to take land out of productive use, that’s a long bow to draw.
“There is more than enough, and a few of these strategic land purchases are not going to have any impact at all.”
He said an overall outcome of spending more money in local towns and engaging with the indigenous community would be good for everybody.