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Lower Murray Darling - Natural Resource Management region

Regional summary

The Lower Murray Darling catchment region lies in the southwest corner of New South Wales and covers an area of 63,000 square kilometres. The Murray River forms the southern border of the catchment, which is also intersected by the lower reaches of the Darling River and the Great Darling Anabranch. The region is dominated by a semi-arid climate and highly variable rainfall.

Because much of the Lower Murray Darling region is rangelands, sustainable rangeland management is an important aspect of natural resource management (NRM) in the region. Of three projects being funded as Trust priority actions in the region, the largest is a rangelands management project. The primary aim of this project is to manage, protect and enhance vegetation at species, community and landscape scales.

Priority issues

Key natural resource management issues in the region include:

• biodiversity loss
• dryland and irrigation salinity
• wind erosion
• declining vegetation health
• declining water quality and quantity
• weeds and pests
• cultural heritage
• total grazing pressure

Regional plan

The former Lower Murray Darling Catchment Management Board - predecessor to the current Lower Murray Darling Catchment Management Authority - prepared an integrated NRM plan, the blueprint, for what is now the Lower Murray Darling, incorporating social, economic and environmental elements of NRM.

This blueprint is based on a whole-of-catchment approach and sets 10-year catchment condition targets for the priority NRM issues of the region. It outlines the tasks to be accomplished to achieve these targets.

This blueprint forms the basis for the development of an Investment Strategy that is used to attract funding from the Australian and state governments, and from other sources, for the specific actions identified in the Investment Strategy.

Through National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) and the Natural Heritage Trust (the Trust) funding, the Lower Murray Darling Catchment Management Authority provides information and incentives to resource managers. This encourages strong community involvement in the region's NRM and foster projects and practical on-ground activities that benefit the environment and the community.

Current activities

NRM priority	Activities addressing the priority
Community values	individual natural resource agreements are being developed between natural resource users and Indigenous Australians in the region provision of education materials and training
Riverine health	environmental impact assessments for major works on Darling Anabranch and Menindee Lakes rehabilitating wetlands measures to improve wetting and drying of Thegoa Lagoon
Salinity	improving irrigation and dryland cropping practices
Vegetation	improving rangeland management including sustainable grazing management training

Contacts

Further information can be obtained by contacting the Regional Facilitators for New South Wales.