A cattle station owner’s plans to dam a Victorian river and create a privately owned hydroelectric station – effectively privatising the river’s flow – has sparked a bitter dispute with traditional owners and environmentalists.
Salter’s weir across the Rubicon River, 21 kilometres south-east of Alexandra, would feed piped water into a power station on his 500-head cattle station and return the water about 600 metres downstream. “In years of drought, it could be as little as 10 per cent and in extremely wet years of high rainfall, it could be up to 50 per cent.”Goulburn Murray Water granted a licence for the weir’s construction in November but is yet to issue licences for the removal and use of water from the river.
“The impacts are quite significant, and naturally impact on our ability to connect and practice culture within that area of Country,” he said. Camp Jungai has been a meeting place and cultural centre for Aboriginal communities in Victoria and New South Wales since the 1970s, and the area was an ancestral ceremonial site before colonisation.Around the camp, the land is dotted with scar trees, canoe trees and a birthing tree, where women still come to bury their placentas to honour their babies’ connections with Country.
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Source: FinancialReview - 🏆 2. / 90 Read more »