Our Mission
To manage the Great Anabranch of the Darling River Private Water Supply and Irrigation District on behalf of the Anabranch landholders in the most efficient, effective, economic and environmentally sound manner as possible.
The Darling River and the Great Darling Anabranch
The Great Darling Anabranch which mirrors the Lower Darling between Menindee and Wentworth in a rough reverse arc to the West, converging with the Murray just downstream of the Darling proper. Once thought to be the main channel of the Darling, which abruptly shifted and lurched Eastward on its current course around ten thousand years ago, the Anabranch stream, along with the series of lakes, dunes, lunettes and sandhills which characterise it, defines the whole Southwestern corner of NSW.
Prior to the implementation of the pipeline, Anabranch landholders, over the years, had constructed ‘block banks’ at key points along the river, creating a series of weirs and small dams which provided a longer-lasting pool of water to draw from for stock and domestic use, however the flows to fill those sections of the river were still dependent on a significant run in the Darling, and the ensuing high-flow to fill the Anabranch. With the construction of the Menindee Lakes scheme, the expected reduced high flows in the lower Darling were offset with an annual allocation from the lake system to the Anabranch to further improve the availability to water for landholders.
This water, around fifty thousand megalitres, was released from Lake Cawndilla, the lowest lake in the Menindee Lakes system, which was enough to fill all the little weir pool and dams. However the flow was still dependent upon water being available in Lake Cawndilla, and even when it was available, it was only ever topping up sometimes old and stagnant water, so the quality was not the best.
Some of the landholders formed together with government and developed the Darling Anabranch Management Plan which proposed the whole of the system be considered a private irrigation area, and a vastly reduced, but permanently reliable supply of water be secured through a managed pipeline. In return, landholders would relinquish the outflow from Menindee, returning thousands of megalitres to the system. This resulted in an up-front investment from government with ongoing management and regulation by Anabranch Water, a locally elected board of eight landholders. The scheme as a private irrigation scheme as that was the only legal framework available to government at the time.
The government put the money up front for the development of the infrastructure, purchasing the excess (saved) water for the Living Murray program. The Anabranch Board has responsibility for managing the scheme and the pipeline, the ongoing maintenance, and the eventual replacement when the time comes. As part of the arrangement, environmental flows are regularly released from the Menindee Lakes system along the length of the Anabranch, and landholders agreed to remove the block banks restoring a more natural system and flow regime to the stream.
The project hasn’t always been universally applauded, but there are far fewer detractors now than when the scheme was conceived and proposed. For landholders within the scheme, it has meant that their grazing operations, their homes, and their families have a secure, reliable place in the region.
