Fitzroy River – Let it flow…
“As the world becomes ever more crowded and environmentally impoversihed, places like the Kimberley become priceless. We are in the happy position of being able to avoid the worst mistakes made elsewhere. We must never become another wheatbelt. Our rivers must never turn into ‘Murray-Darlings’” – Pat Lowe, author and Environs Kimberley founding member
Fitzroy River in the dry season
Fitzroy River in the dry season.
In March 2007, EK and the Australian Conservation Foundation launched the Kimberley Freshwater Campaign with the aim of securing long-term legal protection for the Fitzroy River in a way that is consistent with Traditional Owners’ rights and interests. View media release (22 March 2007).
The river and its people
The Fitzroy River is the mightiest river in the Kimberley in terms of catchment area, length and flow. It is highly significant from an environmental and cultural perspective. The ecology of the river is adapted to annual floods, which bring large volumes of fresh water and sediment down the Fitzroy River during the wet season, both being important to the ecology of King Sound. There are 40 species of fish that live in the river for at least part of their lifecycle. The river also supports one of the largest known viable populations of the endangered Freshwater sawfish.
Fitzroy River
Fitzroy River
A number of Indigenous language groups – including Mangala, Walmajarri, Nyikina, Wangkajunga, Ngarinyin, Bunuba and Gooniyandi – depend on the river for their livelihood. The Traditional Owners of the various reaches have a close affinity with and understanding of the river and its ecology. Aboriginal people consider the permanent pools in the Fitzroy as ‘living water’. The river is also a popular fishing and camping spot for Kimberley residents and visitors.
Traditional Owners Leena Fraser & Lucy Marshall
Traditional Owners Leena Fraser and Lucy Marshall.
topTOP
Threats to the river
However, the Fitzroy River has been targeted by developers over the past decade for cotton-growing, dam and canal proposals.
View the history of the campaign to protect the Fitzroy River here.
Not long after the launch of the Kimberley Freshwater Campaign the-then WA Opposition Leader Paul Omodei announced that, if a Liberal government is elected at the next state election, due in February 2009, it would pursue a 20-year plan to dought-proof WA with water from the Fitzroy River, establish large-scale irrigation schemes along the river, dam the upper reaches and pipe water to Perth. EK, ACF and the KLC immediately rubbished the proposal as both irresponsible and ill-conceived (see joint EK/ACF media release 1 May 2007).
Click to enlarge map
Map© EcoMap 2006
Click to enlarge map
WA Government position
The WA Minister for Water Resources, John Kobelke, has reiterated the current Government’s position that bringing Kimberley water to Perth is far too costly. During a speech in the Legislative Assembly in 2007 he said that the only way Fitzroy and Ord River water should be used by the south-west of the state was to allow the water to flow into the Indian Ocean and then be desalinated when it reaches Perth. And in a letter to Environs Kimberley and the Australian Conservation Foundation the Minister stated: “The Government…recognises the potential adverse environmental and cultural consequences of large-scale developments that could involve damming the Fitzroy River or extracting large amounts of groundwater from its alluvial aquifers”. This is a very promising acknowledgement on the Minister’s part, but is by no means a cast-iron guarantee.
The Minister also indicated he was bringing forward the timetable for a Kimberley regional water planning process, which he says will address the concerns that conservation groups have about the future of the Fitzroy River.
See the Department of Water’s depiction of the main aspects of the regional water planning process here.
topTOP
Kimberley Water Forum
Indigenous organisations, government agencies and environmental groups, including Environs Kimberley and ACF, collaborated to hold the Kimberley Water Forum in March 2008 to help lay the groundwork for the planning process (see media release 13 March 2008).
View the Kimberley Freshwater Campaign presentation to the Forum here.
Dr Gary Scott at the Kimberley Water Forum
Dr Gary Scott, Freshwater Caimpaigner, at the Kimberley Water Forum.
WA Water Reform
The WA Government is also in the process of drafting important new water legislation, which in part needs to be introduced to meet the requirements of the Commonwealth’s National Water Initiative. The new legislation will replace the water resource management provisions in outdated acts like the Rights in Water and Irrigation Act 1914.
From a conservation perspective it is important that the new legislation allows the Minister for Water Resources to declare waterways with high conservation and cultural values, such as the Fitzroy River, to be ‘significant’. This then ought to require a catchment management regime to be put in place that maintains and enhances these values, with a high level of involvement by the region’s Aboriginal people an absolute must. Native title rights to water also need to be adequately recognised and defined in the new legislation so that Aboriginal communities receive equitable outcomes from any future water allocation plans.
Towards long-term legal protection
Other legal measures that should be investigated by the WA and/or Commonwealth Governments include:
additional Indigenous Protected Areas and joint-management of conservation reserves;
an Environmental Protection Policy for the Fitzroy River Catchment;
national heritage listing;
Ramsar listing for internationally significant wetlands;
Critical habitat listing to protect the habitat of the endangered Freshwater sawfish and Northern river shark
In order to secure the long-term future of the Fitzroy River, any legal measures would need to achieve the following goals:
provide statutory protection for the river.
recognise native title rights and associated Traditional Owner interests.
establish a governance framework based on partnership – co-management sufficient funding.
prohibit some damaging activities in Fitzroy River Catchment (e.g. dams, weirs, broad-scale land clearing, large-scale water extraction).
maintain bottom-line ecological thresholds and ensure protection of cultural values.
“The Fitzroy River is a part of us and we are part of the Fitzroy. If we look after the Fitzroy, it will look after us” – Wayne Bergmann, Kimberley Land Council
Take Action!
Fitzroy River campaign pamphlet (August 2007) (pdf 1.45Mb)
Ask the WA Premier to protect the Fitzroy River by sending the snip-off section in this pamphlet to Environs Kimberley. We will send it on to the Premier.
Campaign pamphlet copyright note: Imagery copyright – Commonwealth of Australia – Geoscience Australia, 2000. Map Copyright – EcoMap, 2006.
Other Links
Australian Conservation Foundation’s work in the Kimberley: www.acfonline.org.au/default.asp?section_id=77
Kimberley Land Council – Land and Sea Management Unit
http://www.klc.org.au/projects.htm
Department of Water (WA) website
www.water.wa.gov.au
Acknowledgements
The Kimberley Freshwater Campaign is supported by the Australian Conservation Foundation. Funding has also been provided by the Mullum Trust.