But underlying this beautiful slice of Victoria was the sad and sorry state of the Snowy River. It was alarming to see the state of the river, degraded, with obvious signs of strain and lack of water flow. The silting, apparent, above the water line, was a tragic sight of how this mighty river is suffering under years of lack of natural water flows.
It is a tragedy to see this iconic Australian river in such a degraded state. If there is any hope of saving the Snowy and restoring it to a much healthier state there must be environmental flows of 28%, to do anything less is failing our heritage and our future.
As far back as 1996 the Expert Panel Flow Assessment of the Snowy River Below Jindabyne recommended a 28% mean annual natural flow needed to maintain a healthy Snowy River.
The current Labor government under Steve Brack’s leadership promised they would restore 28% flow to the Snowy. That all changed when the Snowy Hydro was corporatised in 2002, however legislation committed to funding the restoration of 21% of annual natural flow to the Snowy below the Jindabyne Dam.
The legislated environmental flow targets for the Snowy River indicate by 2009 the return of 15% flows, by 2012 the return of 21% flows and after 2012 the return of 28% of environmental flows in line with the advice of the Expert Panel back in 1996.
The reality of the water flow in the Snowy is a stark difference to the legislated flows and paints a picture of a river under extreme duress. Actual Snowy River Environmental flows are shocking, in 2002/03 the environmental flows were 1.7%,
2003/04 3.3%, 2004/05 2.8%,
2005/06 4.3%, 2006/07 3.9%,
2007/08 3.5%, 2008/09 4.04%
and for this year (2009/10) planned releases of 4.01%.
A long way from the legislated 15% and nowhere near the 28% the Snowy needs to recover.
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