Moderators visit to The Lower Darling

Wentworth at the Murray Darling Junction

The Moderator, Rev Myung Hwa Park has a great passion for the well being of the people living along the river systems of NSW and the health of the rivers. The purpose of this visit was to identify what the current situation is, what is causing the problems, how they may be rectified and what we as a Church may be able to do to assist. This information was forth coming from individuals and community consultations as we traveled through the river system. The group was also made up of  Lou Smalbil Cobar Nyngan Patrol ( who wrote this report and took Photos *)  Lisa Samson Media and Fundraising Manager  Paul Creek MDB tours.

Tuesday 7th – departed Coleambally travelling to Wentworth, to speak to a local  landowner in regards to the health of the Darling River and the current issues on the land. We continued onto Pooncarie, where we met up with Pastor David Shrimpton (Broken Hill Flying Patrol), and  met with locals over dinner.

 Wednesday 8^th – departed Pooncarie travelled to “Bono station” for consultation with land owner, continued onto Menindee and held a meeting with local water users and Aboriginal Elders. We continued on to “Bindara station” to speak to local landowner and spend the night

 

  

Above Photos:The Moderator Rev Myung Hwa Park  walking and talking to David Shripmton plus the Meeting at Menindee Uniting Church                                     

Some feed back spoken too on the visit 

Landowners are having to cart water in to service their needs and this comes as a further cost, over and above the cost of holding a water allocation, which at the moment does not have any water to provide.                                                  Landowners are also facing the need to sink bores to provide them with much needed water and this can be very costly and risky.

Landowners/house owners are very conscious of the need to wet the soil around their homes to ensure the ground does not become that dry that the house footings no longer can perform their task.

1.    The Aboriginal “Barkindji” people (people of the river) say the Darling River is dying and their culture is suffering. The Barkindji people have a strong spiritual connection to the “Barka” or Darling River and the surrounding land, it links them to their families, their story and their culture. 

Photos : Darling River in the Menindee to Pooncarie area.

What can we as a Church do?

I believe as a Church we cannot take sides in this debate, however we can offer our support and pray for those who are suffering through this difficult time. We can do our best to make people of position (politicians, media and local government) aware of the plight of those people who are doing it tough and may possibly lose their livelihood or their culture.

Louis Smalbil

Assistant Chairperson                 

Macquarie Darling Presbytery

The Moderator points to the Junction of the Murray Darling River

* The Blog this week comes from a report written by  Louis Smalbil and thanks for  his great Photos ,