Food bowl brimming: Murray Darling Basin storages hit 14.8 million megalitres

Australia’s cotton crop forecast surges to 5.1 million bales as La Nina pumps ever more water into the Murray Darling Basin.

Locked in: Water is heading towards the Menindee Lakes, as storages right across the Murray Darling Basin spill in the wake of La Nina.

Australia’s food bowl is brimming with enough water to carry irrigators through this season and into the next, with 14.8 million megalitres sitting in the southern Murray Darling Basin’s dams.

The biggest storage – Dartmouth Dam has reached 92 per cent capacity, holding more water now than it did in the wake of the 2010-11 and 2016-17 floods, topping 3.53 million megalitres this week.

La Nina-driven inflows across the basin have already led Cotton Australia to lift this season’s crop forecast to 5.1 million bales, up on 2.5m bales last year, at a time when forward prices are hitting near-record highs of $770 a bale for May-June delivery.

One of the Menindee Lakes outside of Broken Hill in western NSW. The lakes are currently at 117 per cent capacity after being completely dry less than two years ago. Picture: Richard Dobson

“We haven’t done any specific estimates for 2022-23 crop yet, but we expect it will be above the average of the last five years,” Cotton Australia chief executive Michael Murray said.

Gwydir Valley cotton grower and NSW Irrigators Council chairman Jim Cush said his plantings were up 300 per cent on last season.

“Everyone’s in a great position and we’ve got water for next season,” Mr Cush said. “It means we can rebuild our resilience.”

National Irrigators Council president Jeremy Morton said he expected NSW Murray irrigators would quickly gain full general security allocations for the 2022-23 season, given the amount of water in storage.

“When you look at where we were in January 2012, when we opened up at 100 per cent (allocation plus carry-over), we’re in a much better position now,” Mr Morton said.

He said that if the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment did not open up in July this year with a similar allocation on the Murray “they better be prepared for a flogging”.

One of the unusual factors at play this season is that La Nina is still pumping water into the Basin, with yet another surge flowing down the Barwon-Darling towards the Menindee Lakes, which already holds almost 1.6m megalitres.

The ongoing inflows have forced the MDB Authority to release about 17,000ML a day from Hume Dam to create the airspace needed to partially mitigate flood surges, while further downstream it is releasing about 11,000ML a day from Yarrawonga Weir.

Flows across the South Australian border have eased from a December 27 peak of 37,273ML a day to 27,481ML crossing the border on Sunday.

SA Government records show it has been releasing 20,000ML to 26,000ML a day through its Lower Lakes barrages to the Southern Ocean over the past week.