FLOODED landowners below Lake Hume won some small concessions from the Murray Darling Basin Authority during a sometimes tense meeting in Albury on Monday.
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Property owners affected by one of the biggest floods in the Murray River in recent memory came face-to-face with MDBA officials including chairman Neil Andrew and river management executive director David Dreverman.
Ann McHardy, who has a farm on the river near the Albury airport, estimated the damage bill to pasture, hay, fences and roads would climb close to $200,000 from an event, she said, that could have been avoided.
“It just wasn't good enough, but it was a very constructive meeting,” she said.
“Rather than us not being informed of what is going to happen, when the gates are going to open, they are going to try and set up a method where we will have prior notice.
“We will be able to move our stock and not be in danger like we were.
“In this day and age in 2016 we should have had something better in place.
“We are just under the weir wall and were disregarded.”
But Mr Dreverman doubted landowners considering legal action against the MDBA for its handling of releases from Lake Hume would have any success.
He said no mistakes were made by the MDBA.
“A lot of people with the benefit of hindsight think they are better operators than my very skilled and experienced team,” he said.
“I'm satisfied they have done a really good job.
“Increasingly in Australia we are seeing people looking for someone to blame.
“This floodplain used to get wet every two years and it's 20 years since we had a flood of this magnitude.
“The flood is an act of God and it comes from the heavens.”
Farrer MP Sussan Ley arranged the meeting between landowners and the MDBA.
She felt a level of sympathy for property owners and called for introduction of real time data.
“People who have lost a lot during this man-made flood needed to express their anger, frustration, but also to listen,” she said.
“It is easy to be wise in hindsight, but I do think there might be scope for reducing the peaks on the higher side of the flood and have steadier outflows for a longer period.
“We are not in a fight here, we are a co-operative group working hard to get this right.
“Communication has to be much better.”
The Murray River Action Group will host a public meeting with the MDBA for those affected by the floods at the Corowa Golf Club from 6pm on Wednesday.