Community Engagement and Leadership Multiple Outcomes with River Flows From the perspective of a food producer Australia is a land of drought and flooding rain. To capitalise on our variable climate and to support our growing population every drop of water is precious. River flows must meet multiple outcomes to ensure environmental, social and economic outcomes are met. To achieve multiple outcomes from river flows community engagement and leadership are the key tools to success. BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA | 18 - 20 SEPTEMBER 2017 MANAGED BY

Shelley Scoullar Food Producer Mother of 3 Passionate Community Member Landholding Chair Delegate to Southern Riverina Irrigators Speak Up spokesperson Passionate environmentalist Win:Win Ecology enthusiast My name is Shelley Scoullar; I have only recently become involved in community leadership and water policy. As you can see besides being a mum, farmer and wife, I am very heavily involved in advocacy for our community. Roles, which are on a voluntary basis, just like the countless others in communities like ours. I spend large parts of my day on the phone to those who have being involved in water advocacy for 20 to 40 years so that I can better understand the complex issues which are impacting our communities on many fronts. I have a vast amount of respect for the knowledge, dedication, passion and amount of unpaid work they have contributed. For today's presentation you will hear from just three.

Our Community Leaders in Water Today I want to discuss the power of communities and localism, and show you a small sample of inspirational people who are passionate about ensuring water is managed to achieve the best outcomes for the environment, food production and communities, to understand this you do not need qualifications or degrees. While I can’t claim I have all the answers. What I do know is that in our beautiful part of the world people have spent the best part of their lives wanting to work with government to produce outcomes that have multiple benefits. They have put the community, both environmentally and economically above personal gains. However in recent times, they have been met with ideologies that disregard the generations of knowledge, understanding and experience they have in water and land management. These are people who respect the ecology of their environment and are now are disillusioned and distressed that they have no input into the decisions that are impacting them. Neil Eagle Family first settled in the Barham region 1870’s Daryl MacDonald Great Grandfather settled in Myall 1872

Our Community Leaders in Water John Lolicato Family first settled in the Wakool region 1930’s

Change The Murray River near Koondrook in the 1914 -1915 drought. Change, some people are terrified of it. But, no one can deny that nature and our environment continually evolves and changes. This photo of the Murray River bed at Koondrook on the Victorian side of the border was taken by the MacDonald family in early 1915. From 1911-1915 Australia faced a major drought, this followed the Federation drought at the start of the century, and saw the failure of wheat crops. During the worst drought in Australia’s recorded history the Murray River did not run dry.

Change Murray River near Koondrook 2007 During Millennium Drought. Human intervention allowed the management of water resources to ensure that critical human needs, which are delivered by the Murray River were met. During that time the allocation of the Murray system resulted in farmers not being allocated water until the needs downstream were met.

Change Video Link - Leaders discuss change Our community leaders discuss changes over time as seen by their family members, in the region and on the river. I asked the group to discuss the changes which their families had experienced since settling in the area. These are just a couple.

Getting it Right - Community Participation Our forefathers paved the way in establishing food and water security for the future generations. In the early days development was lead from the ground up, communities and governments came together. The skills and knowledge of the grass roots were used to establish irrigation systems and dams to ensure that the nation could capitalise on the varied climate that our forefathers found themselves in.  Conserving water in the wet years to ensure there was enough for all in the dry.

Getting it Right Leaders discuss getting it right - Video Link Stakeholders engaged at the planning level Identify the problem Use local knowledge and understanding Locals driving the solutions and owning them Local monitoring and reporting Examples - River Board to identify environmental issues, Barmah Millewa Watering program, Land and Water Management Program I discussed with the local leaders examples of when communities and government came together to solves problems and worked on projects. They spoke with pride and admiration about the projects which had worked. Projects into which the community had input, and local knowledge was valued.

The last decade - Where it went wrong Video Link - Leaders discuss the last 10 to 15 years Leaders speak about the last decade to fifteen years. They have seen a big change in how government engages with communities and how the environment is managed. The pride they had in the management of the river system up until a decade or so ago was evident and is what kept them volunteering their time. Unfortunately, this all changed with the 2007 Water Act and the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

Outcomes Video Link – Leaders discuss outcomes Our leaders discuss what happens when we don’t involve communities from the start. I asked the group what happens when communities are not engaged in the decision making and planning process.

Outcomes People walk away in despair, taking with them vast amounts of knowledge and experience which you can’t learn from a text book. This is Ian Fisher, he has lived and breathed the Edward Wakool System in southern NSW for 54 years. There is no one who knows fish and the system better than Ian. For 34 years he has been a community leader, instrumental in native fish restocking programs and developing a Strategic Adaptive Management Approach to reduce the severity of blackwater events. This year Ian walked away in despair from his role as the President of the Edward Wakool Anglers Association - he could no longer work with the bureaucratic system which abandoned the Strategic Adaptive Management Approach that had been developed in conjunction with locals to effectively manage  hypoxic blackwater events, which were killing our native fish. The process lead Ian to feel he had let his community and the people he represented down, resulting in 54 years of knowledge and experience walking away.

Outcomes

How to Produce - Successful Outcomes Video Link - Success Identify the problems Community engagement from planning stage Use local knowledge and understanding of the environment Resulting in multilayered outcomes that benefit Community Environment Economy Everyone wants successful and positive outcomes from water reform and river management, and none more so than those directly impacted by the decisions and the implementation of river management. To get the most out of every drop of our precious water resource and hence river flows, especially with a growing population and our extremely variable climate, we must value local input. Through community engagement, using local knowledge and experience in land and water management we can ensure that multiple outcomes are achieved with our precious river flows. This can only happen if locals own reform, ensuring that they are invested, engaged and committed to change. This must start with identifying the problems locally and working together to develop solutions .