Wetlands Australia 32: Protecting the biodiversity of the Great Cumbung

Authors: Damian McRae (Commonwealth Environmental Water Office) and James Fitzsimons (The Nature Conservancy)

In February 2019, The Nature Conservancy Australia and partner Tiverton Rothwell Agriculture, became the new owners of two cattle stations located where the floodplains of the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers in western New South Wales.

Known as Juanbung and Boyong, and spanning 33,765 hectares, these two properties also encompass the Great Cumbung – 16,000 hectares of high biodiversity value reed and river red gum wetlands – one of the largest remaining of their kind in the Murray-Darling Basin. It is also an area containing significant Indigenous cultural values and is a refuge site for endangered species such as Australasian bittern and Australian painted snipe.

The Great Cumbung in late May 2019. Photo: The Nature Conservancy

While sustainable grazing may occur in future, the Great Cumbung is currently being given a rest. The burning of the reed beds that used to occur to provide grazing areas for cattle has also ceased. It is also an area that has seen significant changes in how water flows across the floodplain. Planning is underway to improve the management of water in the Great Cumbung as it seeks to protect and maintain the biodiversity and other environmental assets in the region.

In spring 2019, severe drought conditions prevailed across the Murray-Darling Basin and attention was given to creating drought refuges. To this end, environmental flows in the Lachlan River during spring 2019 were delivered to protect the core areas of the reed beds in the Great Cumbung and to protect the Gayini Nimmie-Caira property and Yanga National Park to the south of the Great Cumbung, providing regional drought refuges for native plants, waterbirds, fish and frogs before hot and dry conditions arrive in summer.

Gayini Nimmie-Caira and the Great Cumbung map. Image: The Nature Conservancy

Further information

• The Nature Conservancy - Saving the Great Cumbung and Exploring Gayini Nimmie-Caira
• Water for the environment - Commonwealth Environmental Water Office or NSW Government - Water for the environment