New bid to save Murray-Darling

Flinders University will join a new research group working to improve and safeguard the health and future of the national Murray-Darling Basin.

This follows the announcement of a $50 million grant from the Federal Government’s Cooperative Research Centre Program and another $106.5 million from 85 partners.

The newly announced One Basin Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) will also focus on commercial viability, working with water managers and farmers to create sustainable solutions to improve agricultural production.

Professor Okke Batelaan, Flinders University hydrogeologist.

Flinders Strategic Professor of Hydrogeology Okke Batelaan welcomed the new research with the Goyder Institute and other CRC partners.

“The Murray-Darling Basin is a hugely important area for Australia for agriculture, the environment, and First Nations,” says Professor Batelaan.

“We are thrilled to contribute to support the industry in researching solutions for water issues.”

Professor Batelaan, also part of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training based at Flinders University, has collaborated with a number of long-running conservation projects with the Goyder Institute partners.

Goyder Director Dr Kane Aldridge says regional basin ‘hubs’ will be the focus of up to 75 per cent of the CRC’s activities, working with industry, business, First Nations groups, community and government at all levels.

The Loxton hub in South Australia will host experts from Flinders University, University of Adelaide, CSIRO and collaborators from the State Government agencies PIRSA, SARDI and Department for Environment and Water.

“The new body will be critical for shaping the basin’s future and key to that success would be the unprecedented partnership of governments, industries and leading researchers from across the basin, which will allow the co-development of innovative and practical solutions for regional communities,” Dr Aldridge says.

As well as the Goyder Institute team, the national consortium also includes the University of Melbourne,  the Australian National University, Charles Sturt University, Hort Innovation, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Sensand Technologies and the University of Sydney.

“Australia’s irrigation regions are the powerhouse of Australia’s agricultural sector producing 50 per cent of Australia’s agricultural profits, with the Murray-Darling Basin being the focus of two-thirds of that irrigated agriculture,” says One Basin CRC interim CEO, University of Melbourne Professor Mike Stewardson.

Over its 10-year term, One Basin CRC’s activities will be concentrated across four regional basin hubs located at Loxton and Mildura, Griffith in south-western NSW, and Goondiwindi in southern Queensland.

The Lower Basin Hub based at the Loxton Research Centre in South Australia, for example, will build on existing collaborations in the region and work on local priorities that support better outcomes for the entire basin.

Involvement, recognition and respect of First Nations peoples will carry across all CRC hub activities.

The One Basin CRC is aiming for an estimated $4.3 billion of economic impact by 2037, “with a focus on sustainability and resilience in the face of climate change,” adds One Basin chair-elect Dr Wendy Craik.

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College of Science and Engineering National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training