THE federal Government today completed the single largest purchase of water for the environment in Australia's history.
The government is buying almost 240 gigalitres of water entitlements for $303 million from the Twynam Agricultural Group.
That is equivalent to one half of all of the water used in Sydney each year.
The Government says the water will be used to restore the rivers and wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin to health, with the water used exclusively for environmental flows.
This brings the total amount of water purchased by the government to 297 gigalitres of water entitlements, according to a statement from Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong.
The statement says a crucial aspect of the government's accelerated water purchase program is to smooth the transition to new, lower limits on water use that will start to take effect with the new Basin Plan.
"If we don't start to make this adjustment now, irrigators and the communities who depend on them face a far tougher and more abrupt cut in the future," it says.
The Twynam Agricultural Group currently operates farming properties in NSW with a total land area of approximately 285,000 hectares on the Murrumbidgee, Lachlan, Macquarie and Gwydir River systems.
Twynam's rural enterprises include cattle and sheep production, dryland and irrigated cropping and horticulture.
The family company has been realigning its agricultural enterprises over the past four years to diversify its Australian business operations.
Click here to read The Land's May 2008 report on Twynam's 2008 restructure plan, which did not include today's sale of $303 million worth of water.
As a consequence of the drought, Twynam has been progressively changing its production mix from summer irrigated crops to winter dryland cereals.
The water sale will help to progress the business transition.
Twynam will maintain its involvement in agriculture, with on-going farming enterprises, and we are advised by Twynam that the sale of the water is not expected to have any significant impact on the number of full-time and part-time employees.
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder will manage the water entitlements purchased from Twynam and will determine where allocations will be used, drawing on the best available scientific advice and collaborative input from Basin States.
The water entitlements will be exclusively used for environmental flows.
A number of high-value aquatic ecosystems can be expected to specifically benefit from the water entitlements purchased from Twynam, for example, the Macquarie Marshes, Fivebough and Tuckerbil Swamps in the Murrumbidgee, the Gwydir Wetlands, the Booligal Wetlands in the Lachlan, and Menindee Lakes in the Darling.
The statement says the previous Government failed to directly purchase a single litre of water for the environment during its 12 years in office.
Historical over-allocation and climate change are having a devastating impact on the Murray-Darling Basin's unique environmental assets, and this purchase represents a major advance in tackling this challenge, the statement says.
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