Mary River basin has year of lowest rainfalls on record

A leading Mary River authority is calling for an end to water being drawn by southeast Queensland residents as the region grapples with possibly its lowest year of rainfall on record.

A leading Mary River authority has recorded one the lowest annual rainfalls on record and is calling for water to remain in the catchment, rather than being drawn out for the burgeoning population of Brisbane and Sunshine Coast.

A leading Mary River research authority is calling for water from the Mary River to stop being sent to Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast after the region recorded one of the lowest annual rainfall on record.

Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee operations manager Brad Wedlock said recent wet weather highlighted the organisations concerns over how the scattered, patchy, and isolated storms have fallen hard in some sub-catchments with properties only next door to them remaining dry.

“It’s a tricky balancing act and the lack of waterflow put stresses on everything, especially aquatic species, regeneration programs and irrigators within the catchment,” Mr Wedlock said.

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Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee operations manager Brad Wedlock said the Mary River has received a record low in annual rainfall this year.

He said who it did not impact was the urban users of the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane, who draw water from the catchment regardless of weather.

“We are being donors with no benefits, without water in the catchment it’s a lose-lose situation for the environment and the irrigators,” he said.

Mr Wedlock said they expected “extreme damage to Six Mile Creek” with similar conditions seen with the breeding of female cod back in 2016.

Residents along Six Mile Creek have noticed the changes.

Ben Waters posted photos on social media after he found three dead Mary River Cod on along a dry river bed at the back of his Mothar Mountain property.

Ben Waters reported seeing three dead Mary River Cod in Six Mile Creek at the back of his Mothar Mountain property. December 20, 2023.

“Never even seen one dead there before when it’s been much dryer in the past and with all the recent downpours it’s done nothing but got worse,” he wrote.

Mr Wedlock said this was due to “low rainfall resulting in low or no flow in Six Mile Creek, coupled with poor water release from Lake MacDonald not making it that far downstream and also bottled water extraction from Traveston”.

There’s minimal irrigation in that area, but the dry can simply overwhelm the irrigation use, he said.

The MRCCC was calling for a stop to inter-basin water transfer, saying during the years of low annual rainfall the water needed to be prioritised to the community within its catchment, not the urban users of South East Queensland.

Ben Waters said he saw three dead Mary River Cod in Six Mile Creek at the back of his Mothar Mountain property.

The call came as the organisation released data on the annual rainfall recorded up to November 30, 2023, which shows Gympie, Kenilworth and Maleny catchments receiving the lowest annual rainfall as recorded across the past century, and the Maryborough catchment within the bottom five.

This December has brought rain, but it is the spring water levels, not the summer levels that are integral to the area when Mary River’s threatened species start to breed and farmers and irrigators rely on water for their crops.

The river came to a zero flow in 2023 during October and November, Mr Wedlock said, but this was only because urban water had continually been drawn from the catchment.

The Mary River Coordinating Catchment Committee says the basin has recorded some of the lowest rainfall and river flow figures on record..

Mary River flows and annual rainfall from January to November, 2023, according to new research by the Mary River Coordinating Catchment Committee.

The rain during these months has become increasingly rarer with the river flow slowing earlier and earlier, he said.

He acknowledged it was hard to work and plan with certainty; water was needed on the ground according to an economic, or even ecological schedule, with the rain moving between an extreme dry or an extreme wet.

“Brisbane and Sunshine Coast urban water is going to come out irrespective of what the catchment suffers,” he said.

He said the water supply could be shared within the catchment allowing for both ecological flows and for the irrigators, and it only became a problem when drawn for the burgeoning urban population of South East Queensland.

The MRCCC’s call has arrived as the region faces major changes to its water planning in the coming years.

A new Mary Basin water plan is to be implemented by May 2024, and construction of the proposed Borumba Pumped Hydro project is expected to start by 2025.