A GIANT pick of the crop, Neil Eagle AO has been remembered as a water warrior who fought for prosperous communities and a thriving citrus industry.
Mr Eagle died on June 16, aged 88.
Born in 1933, he was the third child of four, born to parents William and Marjorie.
The Eagles were raised on the orange grove on East Barham Road, where hard work and dedication were instilled watching their father work tirelessly to build the business and shape the Barham community.
Mr Eagle’s involvement in water policy started in the early 1960s.
The group that formed was the Murray Valley Water Diverters, which covered from Albury to the Menindee system.
He then chaired the Lower Murray-Darling River Management board for 11 years, and served four years as Australian Citrus Growers president until 2001.
Citrus Australia chief executive Nathan Hancock said “uncle Neil” was always a “staunch advocate for maturity standards.
“Anyone thinking about picking fruit early should be made to eat a box of them first, silly bastards,” he said.
“An inaugural inductee in the Citrus Australia hall of fame, his wife Joy passed recently too, both big characters in the industry.”
Mr Eagle lived through his fair share of droughts and floods.
But in 2011, he didn’t believe the forests or the rivers were in need of repair.
“It’s in remarkably good shape,” he said before the much-anticipated Murray-Darling Basin Plan was passed inti law.
“The salinity levels are at pre-Word War II level at Morgan, at the monitoring point.
“Turbidity levels are low, nutrient levels of nitrates and phosphates are down.
“We would want scientists to be telling us what is wrong with this river?”
He said there wouldn’t be much of a community at Barham, if it weren’t for the Murray.
His family has grown citrus in the region since 1929.
But Mr Eagle feared food production would be jeopardised if water was diverted to the environment under the Basin Plan.
He saw first hand what a decline in water availability could do to the region’s agricultural industries.
“We’ve already lost a tremendous amount of the productive sector already out at Wakool,” Mr Eagle said.
“There were 24 dairy farmers before this drought, and there are three left.
“If this sort of attitude towards the productive sector keeps going, we’re going to lose more people.”
He’s unconvinced the authorities know what to do with the water they’ve already recovered for the environment.
“What we should be doing is identifying what we’re concerned about, then working out the best regime,” Mr Eagle said.
“If you peel it back and see what is driving this whole debate, it is to a great extent not the environment, but it’s to do with filling the lakes at the bottom end.
“And spilling a vast amount of water which is 2000 gigalitres annually over the barrages into the sea, to keep that clearance open between the Coorong and the sea.”
Mr Eagle was farewelled at a graveside service in Barham on June 27.
He is survived by six children, 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
