mmg.com.au

Irrigation buybacks and the uncertainty over future water availability were destabilising farming, a Kyabram public meeting on the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan heard last week.

The meeting was one of three Campaspe Shire Council has organised to gain feedback for the council’s submission on the plan.

Farmers complained that water was being set aside for the environment when the individual projects had not been identified.

Only 25 people attended the forum at the Plaza Theatre.

‘‘I can’t hide my disappointment at how few are here tonight,’’ Campaspe Mayor Kevin Simpson said in opening the meeting.

There were more councillors — five — than business people in attendance.

Stanhope farmer Kevin Sutton said there were many holes in the plan and there was no plan for what was going to happen to the environmental water.

‘‘It should be put up at the start, not at the finish,’’ he said

Referring to the Murray mouth, Mr Sutton said putting aside water for a saltwater estuary was a ‘‘sheer waste’’.

Several speakers referred to the declining number of farms in the Kyabram area following the drought and the difficulty of encouraging reinvestment when there was so much uncertainty.

Transport operator Alan Weeks said there was difficulty in getting back to capacity because people had already sold their farms and their water.

Wade Northausen said older people were selling their farms or relocating, leaving some farms idle and leaving fewer opportunities for young people to take up farming.

‘‘There will be a lot of problems getting that generational balance up again,’’ he said.

He said the council should ‘‘totally’’ reject the draft plan and tell Murray Darling Basin Authority to ‘‘shove it’’.

He said the council’s submission should ask why new dam construction was not being considered.

‘‘Don’t be frightened to stand up to them; give them a red hot crack,’’ he urged the councillors.

Mr Northausen was disappointed that only a few businesses were represented at the meeting.

Accountant Peter Nelson said it appeared the basin authority had not given enough thought to other options, and not enough work had been done to assess the impact of the draft plan on rural communities.

‘‘Water is the reason many of our communities exist,’’ the council’s chief executive Keith Baillie told the meeting.

‘‘Good water management is a fundamental principle we should all pursue.’’

Mr Baillie described how the northern Victoria councils that formed Murray River Group of Councils were taking up the water issues with the authority.

Asked about the low numbers attending, Cr Simpson said the draft plan was not just about irrigation farming, and he was disappointed with the turn-out.

However he said with the three public meetings across the shire, the feedback already provided to councillors, and the future opportunity of a roundtable meeting with the authority, they should have sufficient material for a good submission.

He said the council would be asking for a public meeting at Echuca.