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Australia's First Wild Rivers Finally Protected Amid Premier's Water Planning Madness - 22/02/07
The Wilderness Society (Queensland) today welcomed the long overdue protection of the first six “Wild Rivers” under Queensland’s Wild Rivers Act 2005. These declarations come amid plans from Premier Beattie to revive the “Bradfield Scheme” and also open up key rivers in the Gulf of Carpentaria for irrigated agriculture.
The Premier’s version of the Bradfield Scheme aims to divert water from northern rivers all the way to the Murray-Darling Basin. The Queensland Government also has plans to dramatically increase the water available for large-scale irrigated agriculture on rivers such as the Flinders and Mitchell, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. These plans combined will ruin many of our northern rivers.
“Protecting Wild Rivers makes sense both environmentally and economically, though the Premier is not making any sense with his other plans to plunder our other northern rivers” said Glenn Walker, Wild Rivers Campaigner for The Wilderness Society.
“The Premier is desperate to distract attention away from past mis– management of Queensland’s Murray-Darling Basin river systems. His water planning approach to the north will create the same costly and intractable problems as the south. It will spell another national disaster.”
“We have been waiting for the declarations of these six rivers since July 2006 when the Premier announced that they would be protected. It is time now for the State to get real about the future of water management in Queensland and come to the table with realistic solutions, not hair-brained schemes,” concluded Mr Walker.
Media Enquiries: Glenn Walker, Wild Rivers Campaigner,
The Wilderness Society (Queensland)
(07) 3846 1420