The anabranch will receive 47 gigalitres of environmental water, which will see it reach the Murray River.

The anabranch is the ancient course of the Darling River and yabbies flourish during its flows.

The environmental water will be delivered through an initiative coordinated under The Living Murray program.

Murray-Darling Basin Authority chief executive Rob Freeman yesterday said this watering would build on the environmental benefits gained from a small flow that reached the anabranch as a result of floods in the north of the basin earlier this year.

“While the Murray system has received recent heavy rains in some parts of Victoria, the Darling Anabranch has not flowed to the Murray River since 2001-02,” Mr Freeman said.

The watering and its environmental benefits have been championed by the Murray-Darling Wetlands Group, a community-based organisation and is supported by the Darling River Action Group.

This water allocation will result in benefits along the 460km-long anabranch, including improved habitat for breeding of fish, birds and frogs and the regeneration of vegetation.

“It’s another example of the success of cooperative waterings by multiple environmental water holders to achieve benefits at a basin-wide scale.”

As the water reaches the Murray system, other Living Murray priority sites such as Coombol Swamp and Lake Limbra on the Chowilla Floodplain will benefit.

The environmental flows will be made from Lake Cawndilla starting on Monday and will be progressively increased to about 1000 megalitres per day.

At the same time, releases will be made from Packers Crossing into Redbank Creek that will flow to the Great Anabranch.

This story appeared in Friday’s Sunraysia Daily 10/09/2010.