Following summer surveys of Nyah Vinifera Park, in partnership with the Wadi Wadi community and ecologists at Australian Ecosystems, an indepth report of the flora of Nyah Vinifera Park has shown a large number of threatened or previously unrecorded native flora in this new Red Gum Park.  Read the recently completed full ecological report here or read more for report highlights.

The Coorong, at the end of the Murray in South Australia, is etched in the collective memories of Australians thanks to the heart-felt story of Storm Boy and his pelican. The Coorong is also the largest Ramsar-listed wetland in the Southern Hemisphere, and is one of 16 Ramsar sites in the Murray Darling Basin, as many as half of which are at risk of losing their status if the draft Basin Plan is implemented as is.

Our lead campaigner, Jonathan La Nauze, has an opinion piece in the Canberra Times this week:

Craig Knowles has a plan for Australia's greatest river. It's a compromised plan, he admits, but trade-offs have to be made; river health balanced with the demands of irrigated agriculture. Problem is, no one has spelt out what the plan will actually do for the river. With Tony Burke poised to clinch the deal with $10 billion of public money, we deserve to know what we're paying for.

We've been busy highlighting the true ecological impact of the disastrous draft Basin Plan. Our lead Murray Darling Campaigner, Jonathan La Nauze,spent days pouring over dozens of publications to piece together the truth of what only 2750GL of extra environmental water would mean for the Basin's ecosystems. Our modelling shows what lives and what dies under the draft Basin Plan and clearly outlines that the draft fails to meet Australia's requirements under international obligations and does not satisfy the requirements of the Water Act.

As the deadline for public consultation on the draft Basin Plan draws near, twelve peak environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, are increasingly frustrated that the Basin Authority seems unprepared to use the best-available science to fix the serious problems of the draft Plan. “Instead, they are persevering with a flawed process, incomplete data and limited modelling,” said Jonathan La Nauze, our Murray-Darling Campaigner.

When a group of highly respected scientists call for the draft Basin Plan to be thrown out completely, its time to start taking seriously the flaws in the process to restore our most important river system. Most significantly, the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists found there is no data in the draft on the amount of water actually needed to ensure the river's health – the whole point of the Basin Plan! This was just one of 5 key failings they outlined in their detailed and carefully considered analysis.

The entire Labor caucus has been ordered to an unprecedented weekend brainstorming session this Sunday 5th Feb. It is being touted as an opportunity for all 102 MPs to workshop policy ideas and strategies and in particular raise any concerns they have in their electorates with the PM and the cabinet directly. So – THIS WEEK is the best opportunity we have to get our message to each of our local federal members

In the last few weeks, the impact of Coal Seam Gas (CSG) mining on Murray-Darling Basin rivers has become a whole lot clearer - and a whole lot more worrying.

In a protest this morning against the hopelessly inadequate draft
Murray-Darling Basin plan, activists have abseiled from the wall of the
Hume Dam outside Albury and suspended a giant 50 metre banner.

On Monday, the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan was finally released. Green groups around the country, including Friends of the Earth, have described it as a monumental failure. It recommends a measly 2750 gigalitres of water be returned to the environment and even their own modelling predicts this is not enough to restore the rivers and their ecosystems to health.