Parliamentary Committees

NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE: UPPER SOUTH EAST DRYLAND SALINITY AND FLOOD MANAGEMENT ACT REPORT 2010-11

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (17:05): I move:

That the 2010-11 report of the committee be noted.

Since December 2006 the Natural Resources Committee has been responsible for the oversight of the Upper South East Dryland Salinity and Flood Management Act 2002. This is the final report required of the Natural Resources Committee under the act, as the project has now been completed. The committee visited the South-East region between 15 and 17 November 2011, meeting with local landholders, both supportive of and opposed to the scheme. We also received detailed briefings and a comprehensive tour from the Department for Water and the South East Water Conservation and Drainage Board on technical aspects of the scheme.

The South-East region of South Australia is a highly modified landscape. Broadscale land clearing and an extensive drainage network developed over the past century have converted what was once a wetland dominated landscape to agricultural production on a vast scale. Although this has generated great wealth and prosperity for the region and the state, environmental health has deteriorated. Several South-East drains intercept environmental flows which previously flowed north to the Upper South-East and the Coorong, a Ramsar listed wetland of international importance.

The Upper South-East scheme attempts to do two things: drain saline groundwater and floodwaters away from agricultural areas (the deep drainage project) and maintain and improve surface water flows to wetlands and watercourses (the REFLOWS project). Whilst the majority of landholders appear to support the scheme, some remain concerned about the quantity and quality of the water that has been delivered to the wetlands via the surface water drainage or REFLOWS system.

These landholders argue that the recently completed Bald Hill/Wimpinmerit Drain, which is used to divert saline water north to the Morella Basin and the Coorong, has caused the watertable to drop, drying out the Parrakie wetlands. The committee heard from witnesses opposed to the project that the completion of the drainage scheme adjacent to the Parrakie wetlands meant that there are now no unimpacted wetlands left to compare with impacted wetlands in the region.

Those same witnesses gave evidence that in late 2010 the salinity in the surface water flows intended for the West Avenue wetlands was considerably higher than the saline water in the groundwater drainage system, which is the reverse of what it should have been. The alkalinity of the REFLOWS water was also extremely high, killing most of the biota living in the wetlands. This is important, because the wetlands were home to the Southern Bell Frog and the Yarra Pygmy Perch, both endangered species.

The committee heard conflicting evidence regarding the causes of the wetlands drying out and the unexpected high salinity and alkalinity, with the Department for Water blaming below-average winter rains in 2011, together with unauthorised obstructions and diversions upstream. The department suggested the high salinity may have been the result of first flush effects in the newly constructed REFLOWS system, with the alkalinity perhaps being a natural phenomenon.

Despite the arguments and counter arguments about the specific environmental impacts of the Upper South-East scheme, the committee heard that, in general terms, the Upper South-East scheme has been successful in reducing salinity and increasing agricultural productivity for some landholders. The department openly acknowledged the need to improve the operation of the surface water drainage network. As part of its 'adaptive management approach', the department has put in place a comprehensive hydrological monitoring network facilitating flow management in both the surface water and groundwater drainage systems.

The committee hopes that it will be possible to tweak the system to fix any problems that are identified. Committee members formed the view that it is too early to make a final judgement as to whether or not the scheme has been a success, particularly in relation to the impact on the Bald Hills-Wimpinmerit drains on the West Avenue wetlands.

Members of the committee intend to revisit the region after significant winter rains in order to consider the efficacy of the REFLOWS project, especially its success in supporting ecosystems of the Parrakie wetlands, including the resident southern bell frog and the Yarra pygmy perch. The committee would also like the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation to ensure that adequate research is undertaken to address some unresolved environmental impacts on the region, especially the high alkalinity and salinity in floodways, degradation of soils due to sodicity and the erosion of some drains and floodways.

I acknowledge the contribution of committee members during last year. They are: the Presiding Member (Hon. Steph Key MP), Mr Geoff Brock MP, Hon. Rob Brokenshire MLC, Hon. John Dawkins MLC, Mrs Robyn Geraghty MP, Mr Lee Odenwalder MP, Mr Don Pegler MP, and Mr Dan van Holst Pellekaan MP. I also acknowledge the former members of the committee, Hon. Russell Wortley MLC and the Hon. Paul Holloway MLC. I thank members for the cooperative manner in which all have worked together and look forward to the continuation of this spirit this year. Finally, I thank the committee staff for their support. I commend the report to the house.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (17:13): I rise to briefly endorse the comments that the Hon. Mr Kandelaars has made and, once again, he has come onto the committee relatively recently to deal with such an issue. However, I suppose the great majority of us on the committee are also in that scenario as well, because the Presiding Member (Hon. Steph Key) is the only one now who has continuity from the previous committee, and the previous committee did quite a bit of work in relation to the Upper South-East drainage project.

Can I say that I think all of us benefited from the visit that we made to that region—as the Hon. Mr Kandelaars said, between 15 and 17 November—although the first part of that trip was in the Lower Lakes region, largely to do with the Murray-Darling Basin inquiry. We then moved down through the barrages and the Coorong to Salt Creek and looked at the works that have been done that the Hon. Mr Kandelaars gave some description of.

I do not think anyone can appreciate the complexity of the project or its aims until they go and witness it. There are some terrific examples of what engineering can provide to a region. Certainly there are differing points of view as to the benefits of the project—and I know I have been in the company of people who are not over-complimentary about its impact on the environment—but I think anyone would recognise the reasons why residents of the South-East would have been empowering and requesting government to do such work, and to do such work throughout the whole South-East. I think it goes back to the 1930s; the Hon. Mr Kandelaars might correct me.

I was in the South-East in 1975, when the whole of the region was awash and the only way that a group of students, of which I was one, could get to agricultural properties was by leaving the bus on the bitumen road and getting onto a tractor and a trailer to go out and visit those properties in the sunny South-East; they were absolutely awash. Anyone who experienced that would understand why the drainage system has been devised.

It may not be perfect, but in my view it is something that has, overall, given a benefit to that region. The Hon. Mr Kandelaars did say that it is the committee's intention to go back and have another look and see what it is like after there have been significant rains. Of course, that will take some delicacy in timing to try to plan to get us all together to go at a time just after we have had a lot of rain; it will not be easy.

I commend the officers of the Department for Water and the South East Water Conservation and Drainage Board for the time they gave us and the manner in which they showed us a wide range of the works that have been completed in the South-East. With that, I once again thank my colleagues on the committee and the staff for their assistance in the work we do, and particularly the chairmanship of the Hon. Steph Key. I commend the report to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon J.M. Gazzola.