Deb Bower has been out on Toorale’s Western Floodplain checking out the Murray River turtle’s interaction with the floodplain, and she shared her findings in an interview with Bourke’s Outback Radio 2Web and an article in Bourke’s Western Herald Newspaper.
The environmental release from Eastern Australia Agriculture’s on-farm storages has reached Narran Lakes and is maintaining important foraging habitat for waterbirds. Inflows to the lakes will cease later this week. You can read more about the environmental release in the attached update.
The rainbow bee-eater (Merops ornatus) is classified as a significant migratory land bird species in the Flow-MER program. It is one of the bird species that is recorded at Toorale National Park and the Warrego Western Floodplain.
Over the last 3 years our team has only found 6 Murray Cod in the Darling-Baaka River between Bourke and Louth. This is reason for concern.
What a year 2021-22 was. With lots of rainfalls, many successful waterbird breeding events and the rebuilding of face-to-face community engagements we in the Flow-MER program have had a year of many highlights.
With the end of the year fast approaching, we also have another quarter of the year done and dusted. During this quarter we have had a continued La Nina year for the third time, meaning more wet times in the Gwydir. These wet conditions mean that presently neither Commonwealth nor NSW water for the environment is being delivered in the Gwydir.
Congratulations to 2rog’s own Paul Frazier and also to Brad Moggridge, who last week, were co-awarded the Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust ‘2022 Ripple Award’.
The Flow-MER program monitors the water, plants and animals of the Warrego-Darling/Baaka Selected Area to understand the influence of water for the environment. This issue explores what we study for each of the indicators and what some of our main findings were in the 2021-22 water year.
University of New England masters student Razzaq Sarker’s scientific paper on the effect of inundation on frog behaviour and chorusing has been published and is now available to be viewed. Razzaq studied the patterns between inundation and frog breeding of species within the Gwydir State Conservation Area (SCA) and surrounding wetlands.
Kevin, our Warrego-Baaka (Darling) Cultural Advisor, shared with us this song by Leroy Johnson. It delivers a powerful message from Leroy about the Baaka – the lifeblood of the Baakandji people. No Baaka, no Baakandji. Take a listen here