Selina Mitchell
November 03, 2006
WATER-STARVED private owners of an internationally acclaimed wetland want their site delisted, saying the federal and NSW governments let it die.

The unprecedented move would embarrass Australia and could lead to international action under the Ramsar Treaty on the conservation and wise use of wetlands.

In a letter to NSW and federal ministers, two cattle graziers said they had no choice but to abandon the Ramsar listing of their land as part of a wetland that comprises four farms near Moree.

Their once vibrant wetland had turned to weeds and dust, Howard Blackburn and Terry Murphy-Fleming said yesterday.

The native bull couch used to feed their cattle has been replaced by the weed lippia and dirt, while the birds that used to flock to the wetlands by the thousands left their young to die last time they bred in puddles at the site.

The Gwydir wetlands cattle graziers say their land had received little water in 10 years despite promises from state and federal governments to provide water to retain the site’s value.

Neighbours can battle the dry by moving to cultivated crops, but those on the Ramsar-listed site would be prosecuted if the ecological character of the land changed due to clearing or farming.

Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell and NSW Natural Resources Minister Ian Macdonald blamed each other.

“The plain fact is Ramsar listings are a matter for the commonwealth, not the states,” Mr Macdonald said.

Senator Campbell said: “While the Australian Government is strongly committed to ensuring the health of Ramsar wetlands, delivery of sufficient water to wetlands and the associated farm land is the responsibility of the NSW Government.”

Jamie Pittock, director of WWF’s Global Freshwater Program, said: “Delisting of a Ramsar site because of incompetent management of water is unprecedented.” WWF will raise the issue at the Standing Committee of the Ramsar Convention in February next year.

Wetlands consultant and former deputy secretary-general of the Ramsar Convention Bill Phillips said the abandonment of the wetland and the farmers was an “international embarrassment”.

The letter, sent to Senator Campbell, NSW Environment Minister Bob Debus and Mr Macdonald, says: “The continuing intransigence, buck passing and ‘smoke and mirrors’ by your bureaucrats lead us to conclude that there is now no hope of returning these areas to their former Ramsar condition.”