“The coffee shop and cafe could be a reason for our increased numbers.

“We are finding a lot of locals and visitors are coming here for coffee, lunch and information about the area.”

Ms Macdermid said a lot of people were under the misapprehension there was no water in the Murray River.

“This end of the river has plenty of water and it is a clean part of the river that is famed for its Murray cod and the famous breeding ground that is Lake Mulwala.

“We have a platypus colony living near the tourist information centre and people can watch them from the cafe deck which overlooks the lake.

“That shows it is healthy water.”

The completion of the weir in 1939 created a comparatively small, but crucial body of water in terms of diversions for irrigation through the Mulwala canal and the Yarrawonga channel.

It also created one of the best native fish fisheries and one of the most prolific breeding grounds for Murray cod.

Although the weir was completed in 1939 and the Victorian Government planned an official opening ceremony for October 27, 1939, World War II saw the ceremony postponed.

An opening ceremony was held 50 years later on October 27, 1989.

l In 1989 the then Yarrawonga Shire published Harnessed Waters — A River Dammed to mark the 50th anniversary of the completion of the weir and the formal opening ceremony.

It can be purchased from the Yarrawonga-Mulwala Tourist Information Centre at Yarrawonga.

A major turnaround as logs are returned to the banks

HOW things have changed.

Gone are the days when crews of workmen hauled thousands of old logs from along the banks and the bed of the Murray River.

Instead, work crews are returning snags to the river at a rate that could never have been contemplated just a decade ago.

The biggest re-snagging project in Australia is under way between Hume Dam and Yarrawonga.

The project, funded by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s Living Murray Initiative, is a partnership between the North East Catchment Management Authority, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Victoria’s Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Stage 1 of the $1.2 million project, from July to October 2006, saw more than 300 snags placed in the river near Corowa.

Between May and October 2007, a further 800 snags were placed in the river at two sites, one about 15km downstream and the other about 20km upstream of Howlong.

The project has the goal of replacing 4000 snags over five years from 2006.

According to the MDBC, the project has the aim of reversing the impact of de-snagging works that removed almost 25,000 snags from that section of the river between 1976 and 1986.

The commission has developed a fish management plan with the goal of rehabilitating rapidly-declining native fish populations in the basin to 60 per cent of their estimated pre-European settlement levels.

The plan encourages river management procedures to recreate traditional breeding environments where possible.

People power combines to protect future of river

ALMOST from the moment Europeans recognised the Murray River’s potential for river transport and its ability to sustain communities and generate wealth, our greatest river has been abused and manipulated.

The manipulation has taken the form of storages that hold back winter flows and minimise natural flooding for much of the river below Albury.

The abuse has taken many forms, including over extraction of water, degradation of water quality and the wholesale removal of snags.

For years fallen trees were removed to make the river more navigable and to improve water flow, with the consequence of increased erosion.

Snags were also removed as an anti-erosion measure, but often had the reverse effect.

Snag removal also ravaged the river’s ecology by destroying native fish habitat and food sources.

By the mid-1980s there was growing opposition to the desnagging of the Murray River.

The campaign that resulted in the return of snags to the river was driven from Albury-Wodonga.

The Greenwells Flyfishing Club, the Murray Regional Angling Clubs Association, The Twin Cities Post, the Murray Valley League and the then member for Albury, Harold Mair were key players in the campaign to halt de-snagging and have snags returned.

Early in 1986 the then NSW Fisheries Minister Jack Hallam met with executive members of The Murray Regional Angling Clubs Association and accepted the association’s submission on river management works on the Murray River.

In April 1986, Mr Hallam responded to the growing anti-de-snagging campaign by saying he would press for changes to policies on river management, including de-snagging.

In August 1986 Mr Hallam advised he had started action to stop wholesale removal of snags from the river.

He also told the association he wanted to ensure the maximum number of snags could be preserved in the river.

The issue finally came to a head in 1987 when the removal of snags near Corowa caused outrage among angling and environmental groups.

Under the agreement just three snags had been marked for removal, but workmen had proceeded to remove 155 snags. The work had also badly damaged the river banks and trees growing along the banks.

The Twin Cities Post alerted Mr Hallam to what was happening and he ordered an immediate stop to the de-snagging.

But the real victory was his order to return the snags to the river.

Mr Hallam told The Post he had ordered the reinstatement of the snags after taking up the matter with State Fisheries, which had “more or less agreed there was a need to retain many of the snags”.

The Corowa incident led to the Albury-Wodonga branch of the Australian Conservation Foundation to call for an environmental impact study into all aspects of Murray River management, including de-snagging, dredging, flood mitigation and other work.

Weir a vital structure

THE Yarrawonga weir is in many ways the poor relation of the mighty Hume and Dartmouth dams.

But the dam wall is one of the most important structures on the Murray.

Work on the weir started early in 1935 and was completed in 1939.

It was constructed to raise the level of the Murray River to enable gravity diversion of water into the Mulwala canal and the Yarrawonga channel.

In 1992 work started on construction of a hydroelectric power station and an associated fish lift to enable native species, including Murray cod and yellowbelly, to move upstream into the lake and beyond.

Today, Goulburn-Murray Water is responsible for the maintenance of the weir and control of water releases.

Tony Beamish is the senior reservoir controller with Goulburn-Murray Water and is one of four staff who are employed at the weir.

Mr Beamish said one staff member specialised in land and water management on marginal and perimeter land and water quality issues.

“The rest of us help with that work and we also maintain the weir and channel infrastructure,” he said.

Most irrigation releases were now made through the power station.

Water was released through the weir if there was a fault with the power station or flows were more than the power station’s capacity.

Releases of water down the Mulwala canal and the Yarrawonga channel were dictated by the lake’s level.

“Last year we tried to keep the lake at a lower level to try to reduce evaporation, but this year the lake will be kept at a higher level,” Mr Beamish said.

The Yarrawonga weir does not have a navigation lock through it because the River Murray Waters Agreement of 1915 provided for navigation upstream only as far as Echuca, which means boats can travel upstream from the mouth at Goolwa in South Australia to Yarrawonga, a distance of 1992km, without leaving the river.

Much of the equipment needed for the construction of the weir was transported to the site by the river boat Australien as well as the barge Vega.

The weir also presented an insurmountable obstacle to the movement of native fish up and down the river.

Mr Beamish said the height difference between the river and the lake was too great for the construction of a fish ladder.

A fish lift-lock was constructed in conjunction with the power station work.

Water flowing from the power station attracted fish to the structure.

Fish could swim through slots into a chamber which then filled with water, enabling fish to swim into the next chamber, which was then filled with water.

The process was repeated until the fish were able to swim from the structure into the lake.

“It is a lock-type system with fish rather than boats,” Mr Beamish said.

“This fish lock-lift was one of the first of its kind in Australia and it has been reasonably successful.

“Fish activity depends on the time of the year and the flow factor.

“We get a few carp in it, but mainly natives.

“It is an ongoing trial to improve performance.”

Water policies ‘threat to towns’

FORMER Moira councillor and mayor Frank Malcolm is blunt about the Murray River and what it means to the river towns of Yarrawonga-Mulwala and Cobram-Barooga.

He is equally blunt about governments, the Victorian Government in particular, and their handling of water issues.

“Governments have taken the attitude that the Murray River is an environmental stream and also that it is a commodity,” Mr Malcolm said.

“As a council we take the view that water is our lifeblood.

“If we don’t have water, we die.”

Mr Malcolm, who was still a councillor and mayor when he spoke to The Border Mail, said without the river and Lake Mulwala, Yarrawonga would probably be a small service centre of 1000 people.

Mr Malcolm is a strident critic of Victorian Government water policies, policies he believes threaten the future of river communities.

The Government’s strategy is to secure Melbourne’s water supply by taking 75 gigalitres a year from the Goulburn River and modernise the state’s irrigation network.

“As a council we recognised five years ago that water was a key issue, so we travelled the full length of the river; we employed a consultant, and we looked at all the issues, including tourism, economics, water availability and irrigation and the environment,” Mr Malcolm said.

“We are a long way towards adopting a water policy.”

He said the water issue had been handled badly by all levels of government.

“It all comes back to the then Victorian premier, Steve Bracks, and his decision to allow 212 gigalitres of water to be flushed down the Snowy River in what was an act of blatant political opportunism to secure the vote of an independent.

“Then there is the 75 gigalitres a year to be pumped to Melbourne from the Goulburn River.

“I could live with that without the Snowy deal because the Murray-Darling basin’s needs are far greater than the Snowy’s needs.”

Mr Malcolm said the modernisation project, both in terms of planning and implementation, had been badly handled because there had not been enough consultation or planning.

“The pipeline and modernisation project is about getting water to Melbourne by the 2010 state election — short-term opportunism with no planning, one bad decision after another,” he said.

“These are life-changing decisions for the area and the locals have not had opportunity for proper debate.”