Deniliquin

I was very excited.

And then there was a job come up in a really small country town called Deniliquin in New South Wales.

And I applied for it and I got it as the announcer there afternoons, 2 to 6 p.m.

So at age 18, 19, I moved to Denny and it was five hours away from home.

It's basically they believe that they can get more water out of the current, um, consumptive pool and, and it's unacceptable.

And we've seen, and I highlighted it when I spoke at the event, uh, if we look at Sunrise up at the border, you know, Deniliquin, not too far away from us, Josh, water policy That has forced buybacks to take place, has impacted their industry, which has been specifically quoted from their management, uh, in recent weeks.

And then almost the next day, we have a circumstance where, again, not yet officially locked in, but the federal government making an announcement around a potential financial assistance.

And I made a point of it when I was speaking, uh, at the Murray-Darling Association conference during the week, is that you can't have it both ways.

This is Remember When, and you can hear it through 2AY in lovely Albury.

2QN in Denilquin.

Thank you, 3CS Colac.

And 3HA in Hamilton.

you want to say something?

I was just going to say, when you're talking about improving the roads and there's more deaths on the roads and the government funding is so hard, I've been talking with an ambulance officer from Dubbo in the last few weeks who's put together a program very similar to what Journey Fellows does in Deniliquin.

And he's funded it himself for the first few years.

Right.

Because a private operator would come in and say, look, I'm happy to do a mail run in Sydney and Brisbane.

But I'm not sending out the parcel to Deniliquin.

Forget that.

I'm not going to make any money.

It was originally lodged in 2019, so that's seven years that this has been running.

And it basically focuses on a narrow section of the river called the Barmachoke, which is between Tokemoor and Deniliquin, and in particular in the management of the Murray River system between 2017 and 2018.

Now, what the plaintiffs or the irrigators were putting forward was that the Murray-Darling Basin Authority had breached its duty of care to irrigators in the way that it managed the river system, specifically because it released water that was above the channel capacity of the Murray River at the Barmachoke and resulted in widespread flooding of the Barmer Millarwell Forest, where it conceded that there were high transmission losses and and that essentially that reduced the water that was available for irrigators, for agriculture.

The plaintiffs claimed that that caused higher temporary water prices, that they weren't able to grow crops that they had contracted, and therefore it cost them significant economic loss.

That's CEO of Southern Riverina Irrigators, Sophie Baldwin, speaking to me just before the Country Hour went to air today about the loss irrigators had of the class action in court today.

28,000 irrigators from southern New South Wales and northern Victoria joined a class action.

claiming the Murray-Darling Basin Authority breached its duty of care in relation to overbank flooding at a narrow section of the Murray River between Tokemoor and Deniliquin from 2017 to 2019, which they argued led to a loss of profits and higher temporary water prices.

They were seeking damages of up to $1.5 billion.

We certainly do.

If you're also at 2QN in Deniliquin, good to have you on board.

Smooches to all through 3CS Colac.

Big cuddles for 3HA Hamilton listeners.