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Murray - Natural Resource Management region

Regional summary

The Murray catchment covers 35,500 square kilometres and supports 101,000 people living in 12 local government municipalities. It is bounded by the Murray River to the south, the Murrumbidgee catchment divide to the north, the Australian Alps to the east and the confluence of the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers to the west. Natural features of the catchment include the Kosciuszko National Park (156,500 hectares of which fall within the eastern part of the catchment), 53,000 hectares of Barmah-Millewa red gum forest (the largest natural red gum forest in the world), along with significant ecological communities including Grassy Box Woodlands, temperate native grasslands and Buloke Woodlands. Towns include Albury, Khancoban, Tumbarumba, Holbrook, Culcairn, Berrigan, Jerilderie, Deniliquin, Moulamein, and Corowa.

The catchment has three major landscape regions:

• the upper Murray , characterised by higher rainfall and steep to undulating terrain
• the southwest slopes in the central part of the catchment, characterised by gently undulating hills
• the western part of the catchment, characterised by flat riverine floodplain

The region has a highly developed and diverse agricultural sector, with grazing, cropping, irrigation, forestry and horticulture the main enterprises. The catchment plays a significant role in Australia's agricultural production, with an annual production value in excess of $800 million.

Priority issues

Key natural resource management issues in the region include:

• biodiversity loss
• dryland and irrigation salinity
• soil erosion
• soil acidification
• declining vegetation health
• declining water quality and quantity
• weeds and pests

Regional plan

The former Murray Catchment Management Board - predecessor to the current Murray Catchment Management Authority - prepared an integrated natural resource management (NRM) plan, the blueprint, for what is now the Murray region, 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 that need 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 Natural Heritage Trust (the Trust) funding, the Murray Catchment Management Authority provides information and incentives to resource managers to encourage 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 Priorities	Activities addressing the priority
Water quality	implementation of Land and Water Management Plans strategic on-farm works, including plantation forestry to reduce recharge, establishing introduced and native perennial pastures and managing run-off from saline land management of road reserves and Crown lands
Soil health	strategic on-farm works including: establishing introduced and native perennial pastures; encouraging landholders to manage soil acidity as part of whole-of-farm management and encouraging lime application
Biodiversity	strategic on-ground works including: management of road reserves and Crown lands; restoring under-represented vegetation types; and retaining and managing existing vegetation along waterways improving habitat for fish and aquatic species

Contacts

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