National Museum of Australia

Jadine Temby

This young mother has a beautiful daughter called Clare, and lives in Wentworth. Jade has lived her whole life around the Wentworth district. She is a practising artist and currently works part-time at the Department of Primary Industries, as well as running a home-based Herbal Life business.

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In 1981 the irrigation company Tandou Pty Ltd put a proposal forth to pipe water for usage along the Anabranch, with the concept of saving the water lost through seepage and evaporation and using it for irrigation on Tandou. There was extreme opposition by Anabranch landholders and the general public and is still the case today (after the recent pipeline proposal). Will the environment and the other stakeholders be done a favour by drying up the Anabranch and pipelining it? The ecosystem has adapted to 40 years (one year out of this lost) of having water in the Anabranch. Now the water has gone, organisms will die and are dying, and the cultural heritage value of the Anabranch to so many people will be lost. Trees will have to be cleared to make way for fence lines where the Anabranch once acted as a boundary. For the pipeline itself it is easy to say that it is being done for 'environmental' reasons , but when it seems evident that there are other motives behind the pipeline proposal, it is very difficult for us to agree. To so many people the Anabranch is so many things because we have adapted to it being there for 40 years. It is an icon.

Anabranch with water in it, Anabranch

The local manager of the Department of Land and Water Conservation (DLWC, now DIPNR) last year described to the Minister of Land and Water Resources the Anabranch as a 'glorified bore drain'. The Anabranch is a well recognised passage and breeding ground for many species of birds including migratory ones. It has an abundance of fish and yabbies, green tree frogs, water rats and is valued highly by recreational visitors, apiarists, fishermen, local landholders and visitors. If the manager of DLWC (now DIPNR) describes the Anabranch as a 'glorified bore drain' then what was the Darling River before the fresh water came down this year? The salt levels were 2500ECs and more at Burtundy. Does that mean that the Darling River will be pipelined too?

Jadine Temby

Jadine Temby

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Death of organisms, Anabranch dry

Anabranch with water in it, Anabranch