Water Symposium

BRIEF

UPPER NAMOI  - WATER IN THE LANDSCAPE SYMPOSIUM

TAMWORTH  March 17, 2025

Issue Date: 17 December 2024

  
The people of the upper Namoi have been blessed by relatively abundant rainfall and groundwater resources, but climate change will decrease rainfall and make weather more volatile across our region. Government policies and rules, water user behaviour and industry strategies will also shape how a growing population, industry and the environment will access the available water, and policy change is happening in real time. Our water is important to every member of the community.  Every one of us is a regional water stakeholder and it is in everyone’s interests to help shape water demand and water management to meet the expected challenges.

The Namoi Water in the Landscape Initiative (WILI) was launched in 2023, in Tamworth as a vehicle for upper Namoi water stakeholders to manage our water, and to advocate for our regions’ water interests. Its 39 current members include Tamworth Regional Landcare Association, the Tamworth, Gunnedah and Liverpool Plains LGAs, the University of New England, community organisations, landowners and managers, industry and government services in the Upper Namoi region.

The Upper Namoi Valley Water Symposium, on Monday March 17, 2025 is an opportunity for you to explore the issues and concerns, to explore how different water interests could be affected, and to help design actions that will ensure ongoing water availability and sustainability. It will allow the views of diverse residential, agricultural, industrial, and ecological water stakeholders to be heard, and taken into account in shaping our future. It will also provide an opportunity for State and Federal Government agencies, extension services, industry bodies and others developing water policy to hear the community perspective on the issues.

Background

The Upper Namoi watershed is framed by the Great Dividing Range to the east and north-east, the Liverpool Range to the south and the Nandewar Range to the north. This landscape is less than 10% of the greater Namoi catchment but catches more than 80% of the water that flows to the Murray-Darling system via the Namoi River.

Surface and underground water are fundamental to all Namoi water users and stakeholders and the strategic plans of the local government areas (Tamworth, Liverpool Plains and Gunnedah) identify the importance of water security and resilience to our region. Land management affects groundwater conditions and extraction; it influences surface retention and downstream flow, and so is significant for both droughts and floods.  Historically, the focus of policy, resource allocation and public attention has been on the lower Namoi and the Murray Darling Basin (MDB), ignoring that downstream waterways rely fundamentally on how much water is in the upstream landscape.

Details of the symposium

The symposium will involve brief presentations on the issues from the perspective of our local governments, agriculture and industry and others, and discussions of key issues which will provide the opportunity for different stakeholders to be heard, and for proposals for strategies and initiatives to be proposed and examined.

Following these discussions, we will seek consensus on specific initiatives to be pursued.

Date: March 17, 2025

Time: 9am

Location: Mercure Tamworth

To book a place at the event, please contact Ninna Douglas 0431242589

For more details, please contact Wayne Chaffey 0400358217