A REPORT that has found massive job losses as a result of the Murray Darling Basin Plan could easily find the same or worse results within the Shire of Gannawarra.
Gannawarra mayor, Cr Lorraine Learmonth said agricultural jobs had been worst hit by water buybacks but other businesses, like eateries and clothing stores, had also suffered.
She said decline in the dairy areas of the shire had been accelerated recently by the milk crisis, but that only amplified the ongoing impacts of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
“We’re trying to stop more water from being taken out of our area,” she said.
The Murray Darling Basin Authority is conducting a review into the Northern Basin and although its research is not yet publicly available, the Weekly Times last week reported figures that showed up to 35 per cent of agricultural jobs had been lost from basin towns in Queensland and northern New South Wales under the plan.
A study into the socio-economic impacts of the plan in the Southern Basin is due to be undertaken next year, as part of a wider review of the plan by the authority.
Cr Learmonth welcomed the study, which she believed would show job losses had been even greater than 35 per cent in local dairy areas.
The Murray Darling Basin is divided into the Northern and Southern Basins. To date, 272 gigalitres of a targeted 390 gigalitres have been recovered in the Northern Basin, while 1704.4 gigalitres of 2360 gigalitres have been recovered in the Southern Basin.
Each catchment in the basin has a local target, while each basin has an additional shared target that will be determined by the end of 2016.
The Gannawarra Shire falls into the Murray region, where 397 gigalitres have already been taken, despite a target of only 253 gigalitres. About 270 gigalitres was recovered through buy-backs.
Cr Learmonth said water that had left the district couldn’t return because of its high cost, meaning prime farmland would continue to lay idle.
“It’s gone too far already; prior to the rain you only had to drive around the district to see that – there were a lot of dry paddocks only growing weeds that once would have been irrigated pasture,” she said.
“Our farmers are worried and stress by the availability and cost of water.”
