Warrego River’s flows to the Darling blocked by old dams

Cotton irrigation dams that were meant to be decommissioned 13 years ago are still blocking water flowing into the Darling River.

Little has changed since this picture was taken in 2008 of the embankment blocking the Warrego River’s flow at Toorale station, west of Bourke, NSW.

The NSW Government is once again blocking about 20,000 megalitres of water from flowing into the Darling River from old cotton irrigation dams on one of its tributaries, which were meant to be decommissioned 13 years ago.

It’s the second time in recent years that Queensland floodwater that should be flowing into the Darling River is being held back by 17km of embankments stretching across the Warrego tributary’s floodplain at Toorale Station.

The station’s old Boera cotton irrigation dam was meant to be decommissioned as part of former federal water minister Penny Wong’s 2008, $23.77 million buyout of the property, which was meant to deliver 25,498 megalitres of water entitlements for the environment.

The Weekly Times first reported on Toorale water being held back in 2019, which led to then federal water minister David Littleproud demanding the NSW Government get on with the job of decommissioning the Toorale dams.

But to date all the NSW Department of Planning Industry and Environment has done is decommission the southernmost embankment on Toorale, called Peebles Dam, with work yet to be done on modifying embankments on the Homestead and Booka dams, plus installing culverts on the main Boera dam, which are still blocking flows to the Darling River.

NSW DPIE’s own website states work was due to commence on installing new culverts on Boera Dam in 2020, to “increase the capacity to pass flows down the Warrego from around 600 ML/day to potentially 1650 ML/day”.

Toorale Station’s old Boera cotton irrigation dam blocks the flow of water to the Darling River

Australian Floodplain Association vice-president Stuart Le Lievre said NSW Parks and Wildlife Service wanted to use Boera Dam to divert water into a man-made wetland on the station.

“But when we want water in the Darling, this man-made wetland should miss out,” Mr Le Lievre said.

“They shouldn’t be using it to fatten ducks.”

He said the installation of the culverts would not allow enough water to get down to the Darling. A NSW DPIE spokesman said construction on the culverts at the Boera Dam was expected to start in June.

“The discharge pipes on Boera Dam were opened to maximise the passing of flow in the Warrego River to the Darling River,” the spokesman said.

“Boera Dam has been kept at full supply at the conclusion of the (flood) event to facilitate stock access for neighbouring landholders, in accordance with our work approval and licence conditions.”

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