VICTORIAN Nationals MP Andrew Broad isn’t regarded as a high-flying member of federal parliament but his penchant for soaring to great heights to capture knowledge could make him someone to watch closely, for the future.
Flying activities of a different kind, on a fact-finding reconnaissance tour of the Darling River this week, gave the grain and livestock farmer and one-time Victorian Farmers Federation President a new perspective on an old topic.
Entering his second term in federal parliament and being used to flying under the radar when needed, it was wheels-up at Mildura in north-west Victoria early Monday morning then zooming onto Wentworth in southern NSW where the Murray River connects with the Darling.
In his Cessna 177RG Cardinal - a light, nimble single-engine aircraft - low-flying measures delivered the best results for surveying the Darling River’s current climatic conditions and observing its often complex water flows.
“Essentially as you head further north from Wentworth, the Darling is not in a very good way,” he said.
From Wentworth, the MP with eight-years flying experience glided along the Darling to Pooncarie where he said “the river starts to look very sick” with a thick layering of green coloured algae.
His air voyage continued further north onto the Menindee Lakes water storages in far-west NSW, which includes a pipeline that feeds Broken Hill, observing dry conditions but puddles of water that remained visible from the sky.
From there, his aeronautical excursion moved onwards to Wilcannia and out towards Bourke in far northern NSW.
“The water coming down the river south of Bourke is a sandy colour and around the town there seems to be reasonable water in those catchments, for the cotton farmers,” he said.
Mr Broad navigated his way into south-western Queensland to take a flyover of Cubbie Station which is the largest irrigation property in the southern hemisphere.
The 96,000 hectare commercial farming operation situated on the Murray Darling Basin has significant water rights and is largely foreign owned by the Shandong RuYi Group.
Mr Broad said Cubbie Station’s water storages appeared to be largely empty but the on-ground growing conditions were green for winter cereal crops.
His flight path then veered to the right and headed towards Warwick just shy of Brisbane to meet with his newly elected Nationals’ colleague David Littleproud at his home town of Warwick, in the Queensland seat of Maranoa, where the upper catchment of the Darling starts-up.
“We sat around by the plane and had a chat,” Mr Broad said of his social landing, just short of 2000kms from his starting point.
Mr Broad said the question about the Darling River system had always been; are the up-stream users taking the water away from the down-stream users.
“The state of the river is not because of the water being held up north - the state of the river has got a bit to do with the dry,” he said.
“It was interesting to look at what could be done with some lochs – perhaps some better management could be put into the river.”
Mr Broad said his adventure was mostly aimed at improving his personal knowledge and current understanding of the Darling River but he’d also like to chair the House of Representatives Environment Committee, in the new term of parliament.
“Everyone talks about things in ignorance but there’s nothing like going out and having a look from the air and seeing things for your-self,” he said.
”I’m not saying I’ve got all of the answers but I certainly have a greater understanding now from seeing it first hand.
“The way you manage the Darling is always going to be different to the way you manage the Murray because the water is not coming off snow melt.
“The question then is; are you better to capture and use the irrigation water up north anyway because it’s a long way before it makes its way down south and that probably does lend itself to cotton production around areas like Cubbie and Bourke.”
Mr Broad said he had a full understanding of the Murray River and wanted to get his eyes and head around the Darling, via air.
“You can read as many reports as you like or listen to as many experts as you like but there’s nothing like taking a look yourself,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean you become an expert - it just means you can piece things together in your mind much better.”
Mr Broad said there was little confidence to invest in horticulture in the lower Darling, because the water distribution system was too unreliable.
“More unreliable water systems tend to lend themselves to annual crops and more reliable systems lend themselves to horticulture,” he said.
“That’s not a bad thing - it’s just a pragmatic way of managing those river systems.
“But the overall state of affairs is we’d like to see more water go down the Darling but there’s good snow melt coming from the hills, so hopefully that’ll put water down the Murray and the Murrumbidgee.
“There’s also some argument for more engineering work to be done on the Darling and I’m not an expert on that but am open to it.”
Some may wonder why the river system is dry when there’s been recent heavy rains and some floods but Mr Broad said throughout south-eastern Australia there’d been little run-off rain.
He said the seasonal conditions in the sheep station country of southern NSW looked “really good”.
“A lot of stock were doing well and even around Bourke it was pretty good, but after crossing the Queensland border and heading to the coast it looked pretty dry,” he said.
An overall impression gleaned from the air he said was, “she’s a big ass country”.