Kate Reid, Stewart Taylor, Paul Childs, Nellie Flagg and Warren Parsons.
A recent community day which aimed to share knowledge and provide information about scientific monitoring and research done on Werai Lands with its Traditional Owners certainly achieved its goal, judging by the many questions and overall engagement on the day.
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About 30 Traditional Owners and their families took part in the Werai Lands Traditional Owners Community Day at the Deniliquin Golf Club in March, where they listened to presentations from, and asked questions of, scientists and environmental water managers.
The day was organised by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH), who, as part of its annual planning, provide environmental water for Werai Lands.
Attendees included members of the Werai Land and Water Aboriginal Corporation, Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre, and the Deniliquin Local Aboriginal Land Council.
Presentations were given by environmental water management from the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, and Professor Robyn Watts, from Charles Sturt University who leads the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder’s science program Flow-Monitoring Evaluation and Research (Flow-MER) in the Edward/Kolety-Wakool River system.
The Werai Lands (previously referred to as Werai Forests) is made up of a group of former state forests, managed by NSW National Parks for more than a decade, which total 11,315ha downstream of Deniliquin on the Edward/Kolety River.
The Werai Land and Water Aboriginal Corporation, who represent the Traditional Owners - the Perrepa Perrepa/Barapa Barapa and Wamba Wamba/Wemba Wemba people - was given the one freehold title for the forests by the NSW Government in July last year.
Chairperson of the Werai Land and Water Corporation since its inception in 2016, Stewart Taylor, a Barapa Barapa Wemba Wemba man, said the forest was an important part of his people’s culture with cultural values such as burial sites, scar trees and shell middens amongst other things.
It is also a Ramsar listed wetland of international importance being one of three sub-sites in the NSW Central Murray Forests Ramsar Site.
“It is important to know what we need, or what we need to do, to manage the land the best we can for the best environmental outcome,” he said.
“We need people such as Robyn and others to inform and help us. We can’t do it by ourselves.
Moesha Day, Jeanette Crew and Professor Robyn Watts.
“Without people such as those here (at the forum), we wouldn’t be able to do the upgrades on the regulators to be able to get water down into the lands; we wouldn’t be able to do the surveys which justify the need for what we require … it’s actual evidence-based from experts in the field, not us just saying we need water down there.
“We have our traditional knowledge on things, but we need the western science to inform and complement what we do.”
Prof Watts spoke about four recent research projects on Werai Lands, which are:
• The use of field cameras that took daily photographs over several years that showed the changes to the forest’s vegetation in response to watering and unregulated flood flows.
• Inundation modelling which used satellite imagery to show how the water travels through the forest and how long it takes to dry down after flows recede. The study showed that water that flows into Werai Lands drains off relatively quickly into Colligen Creek or the Edward River, when compared to other floodplain wetlands.
• A study that showed that during the unregulated flood in late 2021 the quality of water flowing out of Werai forest into Colligen-Niemur River was better (more dissolved oxygen and lower turbidity) when compared to the water flowing into the forest from the Edward River. The forest improved the water quality.
• An evaluation of the effectiveness of using drones to assess groundcover vegetation under trees.
Moesha Day, a Wemba Wemba woman from Echuca, said she attended the day “as I wanted to see how the Country is going and what we are doing to try and support Country. I think I have a responsibility as a younger person and next generation to do that”.
She said information presented on the day gave her “a different kind of understanding” of what she knows already about the Werai Lands from growing up on Country.
“I’ve learnt that there are multiple layers to getting better water flow into the system,” Moesha said.
“I now have a better understanding of how many different plant species there are and how they respond to water flows.
“It’s been really great to see some physical evidence, the actual measurements, of what is going on in the Werai.”
CEWH Edward/Kolety-Wakool system delivery officer Kate Reid described the day as “fantastic”.
“Everyone was very engaged, and I think it’s a great step forward into future engagement with the Traditional Owners of Werai Lands,” she said.
“The feedback I’ve had is that the Traditional Owners found the day very informative and that it gave them a much better understanding of what is going on with water in the Werai which is what we want.
“It is a really difficult topic to get your head around because there is so many moving parts. This day is just the first step.”
~ Story and photos by Margrit Beemster, Edward/Kolety-Wakool Project, Charles Sturt University.
