The Australian government has committed up to AUD 73.5 million to expand the Restoring Murray Waterways project, in a release issued jointly with the government of New South Wales.
The joint media release was issued by the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and its NSW counterpart, under federal minister for the environment and water Murray Watt and NSW minister for water Rose Jackson.
The expanded project covers 320 kilometres of creeks and 6,482 hectares of wetlands in the Edward Wakool river system. Planned works include upgrades to existing escapes and channels within the Murray Irrigation Limited network, improvements to creek crossings, fencing on private land, construction of additional escape structures to extend water delivery to new wetland areas, and installation of fish friendly crossings. All works are required to be completed by 31 December 2026.
The funding is channelled through the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism (SDLAM), a component of the Murray Darling Basin Plan. SDLAM allows environmental outcomes equivalent to, or better than, formal water recovery targets to be met through infrastructure and management upgrades, rather than through buybacks of water entitlements from irrigators. In practice, this reduces the volume of water that would otherwise need to be recovered from the consumptive pool to meet the basin plan’s environmental targets.
Murray Irrigation Limited (MIL), which operates the irrigation network used to deliver the project, will carry out the works. Aboriginal communities and local stakeholders helped shape the project’s design
The expansion builds on an earlier pilot phase of the Restoring Murray Waterways project.
