Wild Rivers Scott Buchanan 19.02.09

Indigenous Water Reserve

Background

• The Cape York Peninsula Heritage Act 2007 introduced a requirement for the provision of a reserve of water in Water Resource Plans (WRP) and Wild River Declarations for the purpose of helping indigenous communities in the area achieve their economic and social aspirations (s27(2)).

• The Water Resource (Gulf) Plan has reserved a volume of water 1000 MegaLitres (ML) • The Water Resource (Mitchell) Plan has reserved a volume of water 5000 ML • The Archer basin wild river area declaration proposal has proposed an annual

volumetric limit (AVL) of 6000 (ML); • The Stewart basin wild river area declaration proposal has proposed an annual

volumetric limit of 4000 ML;• The Lockhart basin wild river area declaration proposal has proposed an annual

volumetric limit of 5000 ML; and,• The Wenlock basin wild river area declaration proposal has proposed an annual

volumetric limit of 5000 ML.

Cape York Peninsula and Gulf Region

Issues

• It is difficult for any sector to articulate future water needs, and this is more so for those sectors that have an existing low level of use. The Indigenous communities in the Cape are in this latter category.

• What range of water using projects and actions could be considered to assist in the achievement of social and economic aspirations?

• What criteria should be applied to the determination of whether a given application contributes to the aspirations of the community?

Issues (cont.)

• Should a competitive process be instigated in instances where demand exceeds the available unallocated reserves?

• Should there be separate/multiple deliberative processes for the strategic planning of water development and for the consideration and assessment of applications?

• Should water entitlement holders be able to lease all or part of the Indigenous water reserve to other entities, for example a mining company?

Opportunities

• The Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge Research Hub (TRaCK) have approached NRW with a proposal to assist NRW in developing a general policy approach to the allocation of water entitlements from the Indigenous reserve through the implementation of a pilot project that will undertake research, consultation and establish a collaborative process in the Archer River Basin.

Archer basin proposal (dependant on declaration)

• Conduct of an issues analysis with external stakeholders: Including workshops with the Indigenous Water Policy Group (IWPG) to obtain their input for consideration into the process.

• Conduct of an issues and needs analysis with Archer Basin stakeholders. • Partnership development. • Collaborative process: with local stakeholders and external experts. This

stage will look at options for collaborative decision making, and may include training and capacity building for participants.

• Review and presentation of findings to stakeholders. • Dissemination of findings: The final stage consists of developing the findings

for presentation to NRW and other water planning agencies, as well as the funding bodies of the pilot. It would consist of the development of a set of policy guidelines for the Wild Rivers Act, community communication materials and a discussion paper for national consideration.

Benefits/Outcomes

• The TRaCK proposal will develop a policy guideline for the allocation of water that can be translated to other areas where there maybe Indigenous water reserves made available.

• The collaborative approach proposed will enable a network to be established which will be able to provide policy advice to NRW on Indigenous water issues from a range of viewpoints, that is at national, regional and local scale.