The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder’s (CEWH) Science Program funds the Flow Monitoring, Evaluation and Research (Flow–MER). Figure 1 Vulnerable listed Black Falcon (Falco subniger) photographed in the Gwydir in November 2016. Photo credit Curtis Hayne. National Threatened Species Day is every year on September 7, the anniversary of the death of the last Tasmanian Tiger in 1936. The inaugural National…
Dr Paul Frazier and Dr Mark Southwell met up with Bourke’s Western Herald Newspaper and Rod Corfe from Radio 2WEB to discuss the recent Culture to Science day at Toorale, a part of the Warrego-Darling Flow-MER project.
On June 17 the Kurnu-Baakandji People, 2rog Consulting, University of New England, DPI Fisheries and members from the Toorale Joint Management Committee and National Parks and Wildlife Services gathered on Toorale National Park to share cultural and science knowledge. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the day.
We are lucky to work in special places like the Toorale State Conservation Area. Here are some of our favourite photographs we’ve taken over the eight years of the Long Term Intervention Monitoring (LTIM) and Flow-MER programs in the Warrego Selected Area. We hope you enjoy!
Kevin, our Warrego-Baaka (Darling) Cultural Advisor, shared with us this song by Leroy Johnson. It delivers a powerful message from Leroy about the Baaka – the lifeblood of the Baakandji people.
Toorale State Conservation Area provides for many significant bird species which rely on water flows through the system, and over the past 8 years of monitoring we have had the pleasure of capturing images and records of many threatened species.
The end of 2021 saw higher than average rainfall across the Northern Murray-Darling Basin which produced the largest flows through the Darling River since 2012, with a peak of 73,000 ML/day at the Bourke gauge. Usually, the Warrego River flows into the Darling just south of Bourke. However, during this event water levels in the Darling got so high that water flowed over the banks of the Darling to the floodplains and riparian areas and also backed up into the Warrego channel!
A few months ago Jason Wilson from the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office (CEWO) and Paul Frazier from 2rog jumped onto Radio 2WEB to discuss the Warrego River’s Western Floodplain in Toorale National Park, near Bourke. Click play to hear about flood events on the floodplain in recent years, cultural uses of the wetland plant, lignum (Wirnta in Kurnu-Baakandji) and much more.
