mmg.com.au

Experienced Deniliquin fisherman Ian Fisher says the Murray Darling Basin Plan could destroy Deniliquin’s ecosystem.

Mr Fisher said the plan to push big volumes of water down the Murray-Darling System will ‘‘destroy’’ all the hard work done to restore the Edward River by local groups.

The long-time local angler said big flushes of water cannot get through the Murray River at Mathoura and will be ‘‘pushed down the Edward’’.

‘‘The Deniliquin RSL Fishing Club, the Murray Catchment Management Authority, anglers and other organisations have worked hard to create what I think is the best cod fishery around.

‘‘The (basin) plan wants to save one ecosystem by destroying another and then all our hard work will be gone.’’

Mr Fisher said this potential disaster was another example of how the basin plan does not delve far enough into its potential consequences.

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan, developed by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority for the Federal Government, proposes an extra 2750 gigalitres (GL) of water be dedicated to environmental flows. The water will be diverted away from productive on-farm use.

Mr Fisher said the social and economic impacts missing from the basin plan have received much publicity, but said not many would realise that it could also destroy Deniliquin’s healthy river system.

A series of photographs of the ‘‘the best cod fishery around’’ have been compiled by Mr Fisher and the Deniliquin RSL Fishing Club, as part of a campaign to highlight the potential impacts. Titled ‘28 cod in 28 days’, the photographs show local anglers and their catches. As the title suggests, all fish have been caught in a 28-day period to this week.

‘‘It’s not often you catch that many cod in such a short amount of time.

‘‘They’ve all been caught by me, my son (Sean Fisher), John Conallin and other fisherman.

‘‘We want to use it as a tool to show people what the (basin) plan could be destroying.’’

Mr Fisher said only correct management of the river systems will sustain the ecosystem we have. He said the basin plan threatens a perfectly good process which is providing excellent results.

Meanwhile, local community and irrigator groups are still protesting the amount of water proposed to be taken from local food producers.They say its economic impact will decimate small communities like Deniliquin.

The failings of the basin plan have been protested during the last 12 months, and culminated in 3000 people attending a MDBA meeting in Deniliquin on December 16.

Murray Group of Concerned Communities chairman Bruce Simpson said the meeting was the catalyst for a more aggressive and more professional campaign, which is about to begin.

‘‘We will organise meetings in Canberra with (Federal Minister for Regional Development) Simon Crean and (Federal Minister for Agriculture) Joe Ludwig, and hopefully (Federal Minister for Water) Tony Burke.

‘‘We will write to Burke and (MDBA chair) Craig Knowles and ask them to respond to the meeting in Deniliquin — their interpretation of the messages and their considerations following the meeting.

‘‘Next week we will start a new push with a media campaign and we will be considering a professional campaign.

‘‘As a result of that meeting we developed a great pressure, but if that pressure eases it will disappear.

‘‘We must be in a position to do a number of things concurrently to keep the pressure on.’’

The NSW Government has announced it will conduct its own community consultation on the plan.

In the meantime, the Murray Darling Water Council is still pushing for the MDBA board to be stood down.

The group, which has members in the local area, said the board is responsible for delivering two failed plans and should be held accountable.