WHEN Echuca’s Tuesday Browell finished building her solar-powered Egyptian-styled felucca Wanambe last year during COVID lockdown, she had no idea it would be the catalyst for an eye-opening journey that would bring her face-to-face with the impacts of NSW's disgraceful water management.
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Joined by her good friend Carol Carney, the boat trip which began mid-April was meant to be a leisurely 600 km trip down a once mighty Darling-Baaka River.
“I had heard mainstream media telling me the river was just fine, but the reporting and the reality were just two completely different things,” Tuesday said.
She described the trip as ‘wonderfully awful’ — wonderful with respect to the people they met and the hospitality they received, and awful with respect to the health of the river environment and what it was doing to communities along its length.
“There was so much heartache and grief as these people have watched their river die and they have no-one to trust to fix it,” Tuesday said.
“They have attended meeting after meeting and still the river isn’t flowing.
“Water that once flowed through the system is now held back in dams by floodplain harvesters and prioritised to grow cotton in the north.”
Tuesday said there were signs all along the river pointing out the dangers of the water quality — ‘no fishing’, ‘don’t let your dog in the water’ and ‘no swimming'.
“I still can’t get over the fact a mum can’t boil water for a bottle. That just blows me away. People were complaining of rashes on their skin. You could smell the water and you could tell just by looking at it, it was unsafe to touch.”
The convoy arrived in the area before floodwater from heavy rains in the north hit the system and they were only able to travel 40 km between two weirs at Menindee.
At Pooncarie they could only travel 8 km upstream and 4 km near the weir in 25 cm deep water.
“It was pathetic,” Tuesday said.
“We actually got our boats bogged and had to push them back out through thick sludgy mud.
“This is on a river that should be flowing and supporting community and environment all the way down.”
Tuesday said she had some young kids on her boat who hadn’t even had the opportunity to travel on a boat before.
“The kids were ecstatic and were totally in awe,” she said.
“They were telling me how amazing it was and how they had never even steered a boat before. They were telling me about all the life skills they were missing out because there had been no water in the river and they can’t swim, camp on the riverbank or go fishing and it was just heartbreaking.”
An older woman also joined Tuesday on her boat. She hadn’t been on one since the day she was married back in the 1950s. She pointed out the place where her daughter was killed in a car accident many years ago in floodwater, and Tuesday said they stopped and played a song for her.
Tuesday said there were many other emotional moments along the way.
“It is true what they say about the life expectancy of the indigenous in Wilcannia being 38 for men and 42 for women,” Tuesday said.
“While we were there, three people aged between 30 and 50 died and that was terrible to hear.”
Tuesday said people would stand and cheer from the riverbank and they had many different types of boats join their convoy.
“We had people from Queensland, Broken Hill, Mildura and even Orange join us, along with locals,” Tuesday said.
“There were kayaks, canoes and blow-up boats and we would have had 60 to 70 people join us at different times.”
They were welcomed at each town they stayed in and were treated to smoking ceremonies, didgeridoo playing and barbecues.
“The hospitality was just wonderful, and I think the people were just grateful to be listened to and heard,” Tuesday said.
“I think we will head back there in September and see how things are looking then.”
Tuesday said she had been surprised by the interest the convoy generated and the 42,000 people who followed their journey through Facebook.
“Many towns we visited are unable to use town water,” she said.
“Instead they use donated water delivered in plastic bottles through the goodness of volunteers.
“How is this acceptable?”
Tuesday said basic human rights to clean water were being eroded for communities along the Darling-Baaka.
“Our government needs water supply treatment units in all communities where the water is below standard,” she said.
“Water sold before environmental needs and basic human requirements is a national disgrace and in breach of the 2007 Water Act and other international conventions in relation to a person's right to water.”
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