Why the Murrumbidgee River is important for young people at Hay?

• Recreation – swimming, walking, boating, water skiing, water sports, fishing, picnics, etc
• Favourite place for kids to ‘hang out’ and have fun, especially in summer
• Part of our lifestyle
• Town water supply
• Attracts tourists to the area
• Popular camping area
• Kids love the river
• Water for drinking

What are the major natural resource management issues for secondary students in the Hay district (listed in order of priority)?

• Keep the river full of water
• Reduce riverbank erosion
• Blue green algae
• Weeds
• Maintain healthy and high quality water
• Overgrazing by stock
• Farmers must only use allocated water
• Less native fish in the river
• Rabbits
• Carp
• Preserving Aboriginal cultural sites
• Salinity
• Pollution
• Loss of top-soil

How can these problems be fixed (listed in order of priority)?

• Plant native plants (including phragmites) along waterways
• Control weeds
• Stabilize river banks
• Conserve water
• Stock with native fish fingerlings
• Improve native fish habitat
• Stop overgrazing
• Improve water flows in the river
• Get rid of willows, rabbits and carp
• Improve awareness of Aboriginal culture
• Conserve and recycle water

Do students want to be involved in fixing the problems?

Yes - we would rather be part of the solution than be part of the problem.

What are the best ways for students to be involved in managing the catchment (listed in order of priority)?

• Improve awareness through excursions, workshops, etc (similar to the forum)
• Plant trees
• Develop an interest group at the school
• Conserve a carp fishing competition in the river
• Monitor projects
• Recycling

What one new thing did individual students learn on the morning bus tour?

• Regeneration of native pine trees is being encouraged in a plantation at Wangara.
• The significance of Aboriginal communities in the area.
• Native Murray pine trees grew in the district.
• The importance of scarred trees.
• Palm trees are weeds and are being removed to prevent their spread along the floodplain.
• Willows can change the course of a river.
• Fencing-out stock can improve vegetation along rivers.
• Salt bush won’t grow where prior streams existed.
• A lot of Aboriginal artifacts have been found in the area.
• Phragmites can be used to stop erosion.
• Murray cod and Golden perch fish are eating carp.
• The rise and fall of the river can cause bank erosion.
• Snags are important for native fish.
• Blue-green algae thrives in warm shallow water.
• Murray pine was a good building material.
• Aboriginal people used different parts of the landscape for different purposes.
• A floodplain can extend a long way from a river.
• Have to nurture, not just plant, trees.
• Controlling rabbits is not easy.
• A cut-off loop in the river is called a billabong.
• Murray cod can eat carp.
• Houses at Hay were built of Murray pine, the same tree that landholders are trying to regenerate at Wangara.
• People around Hay are doing practical things to improve the environment.

More information on Youth Forums or view news release

To top