WaterNSW criticised for ‘appalling’ decision after hundreds of turtles left to die in wetlands

Guardian Australia reported on Saturday that turtles, waterbirds, frogs and sheep had died after WaterNSW abruptly stopped flows to the Gwydir wetlands region near Moree in March.

Environmental flows refer to water released by the government from dams and tributaries into rivers and ecosystems to restore their health.

The University of New England researchers were filmed digging broad-shelled turtles out of thigh-deep mud after the Gingham watercourse, which supports four Ramsar-listed sites, dried up.

Thirty-nine turtles are being housed at Taronga Western Plains zoo in Dubbo because the water that could save them is being held in Copeton dam after concerns about inundation of private land were raised by a landholder.

Prof Richard Kingsford, a river ecologist and conservation biologist at the University of New South Wales, called the decision to withhold the flows “appalling”.

“I think it’s appalling because we have a catastrophe unfolding here,” he said.

“There’s the solution to fix it, which has been agreed by the federal government and the state governments: environmental flows are for the environment.

“And we essentially have a process where a landholder is stopping the water that will save these turtles [from] coming down the river.”

The NSW water minister, Rose Jackson, has said the government was working on “pathways to reinstate those deliveries while managing liability as soon as possible”. Guardian Australia has sought further information from the government about the circumstances that led to the water agency’s decision to stop the flows, including any advice it may have received related to inundation of private land.

Jackson said on Saturday the government had worked urgently to relocate as many turtles as possible and that they would be returned to the Gingham watercourse as soon as it was refilled.

Kingsford said: “It’s awful. It’s a classic bureaucratic tangle which should never happen. This water needs to be there to avoid this sort of catastrophe.

“This is a wetland that can’t go where it used to because farming keeps gobbling up the margins of the wetland.

“We’ve got a whole rescue happening now and the only reason for that is the government won’t give them water. It’s absolutely crazy.”

The Gingham watercourse is home to three turtle species, the broad-shelled turtle, the Murray River turtle and the eastern long-necked turtle.

Prof Deb Bower, who has counted more than 300 turtles in the area as part of population studies over several years, said that in addition to turtles needing rescue, there was evidence of tracks at the site suggesting some eastern long-necked turtles had gone in search of water elsewhere. She said some broad-shelled and eastern long-necked turtles had already died.

Grazier Jonathon Guyer, who manages separate wetlands on his property, told Guardian Australia the abrupt cessation of flows had caused native birds to abandon their nests and fledglings, frog deaths, and affected other species such as the endangered grey snake.

Polly Cutmore, a Kamilaroi traditional owner with connections to the wetlands, said the impact on wildlife in the area was “heartbreaking”. She said wetlands were meant to be “one of our protective places”.

“It’s where we thought there was always going to be plenty of room for our animals to survive,” she said.

Cutmore said she was “not happy with what’s gone down” and was concerned irrigators were “calling the shots over and over”.

“It’s so disrespectful – they keep doing this stuff without even talking to us when it’s our country,” she said.

Bradley Moggridge, a Kamilaroi water scientist at the University of Technology Sydney, said “if water’s not getting to some of these waterholes that are culturally significant then Kamilaroi people can’t maintain their cultural connection and care of that country”.