When Steve Kendrick first arrived in Wood Wood, on the banks of the Murray River in north-west Victoria, he fell in love with the location and made his dream to run a caravan park a reality.
But the Wood Wood General Store and the caravan park operator faces an uncertain future.
“It’s something we were aware of to a point, that everybody in Wood Wood — even the businesses — have to rely on pumping from the river for domestic use,” he said.
“[Otherwise] they have to buy tank water in for drinking water as it doesn’t really rain in the Mallee very much.”
Five years ago, the Department of Health in Bendigo contacted Mr Kendrick about a blue-green algae event in the town with a population of 85.
Mr Kendrick installed large water tanks and purchased water for about a month, so that guests could shower and access water.
“It’s worse than a Third World water source,” he said.
What’s ‘holding these places back’
In the nearby town of Piangil, which has potable water — water you can safely drink, cook and bathe in — but no sewerage, Trevor Tobias is developing a cabin and caravan park.
The park will accommodate 200 workers, but requires an on-site water processing facility for the use of river water.
“Piangil has enough power and water; if we could get a sewer system in then we can develop the area,” he said.
“[There are] eight new almond farms, pistachios, all the fruit that we pick in the area, and it’s growing and growing and growing.
Swan Hill Rural City Council has written letters to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, along with other ministers, seeking better water infrastructure as part of its advocacy ahead of this year’s federal election.
Councillor Nicole McKay first raised the notice of motion.
“There are towns and settlements where there are really big movements forward with industry and horticulture, big operations, large family farms, huge demand for accommodation and housing,” she said.
“And yet, the lack of water infrastructure creates really big problems for the people who have been living there for a long time.
“But also, it’s really holding these places back.”
Bottled water for newborns
Ms McKay, who is also a nurse and midwife, said it had had an impact on locals’ health.
She said residents of another town, Boundary Bend, had been advised to recuperate post-surgery for up to four weeks in Mildura, a 1.5-hour drive away, or Swan Hill, a 1hr drive, as the water supply in their home community posed an infection risk.
Ms McKay also said parents of newborn babies had had to purchase bottled water for formula and sterilisation purposes.
“It is absolutely a health issue. If you look on the Department of Agriculture website about the health risks of contact with blue-green algae, they’re very, very significant,” she said.
The impact is not limited to existing residents; there is also residential land that has gone undeveloped due to the lack of water supply.
“We’ve got a real housing shortage and you can’t supply a house with potable water in these smaller towns,” Ms McKay said.
The challenges, and cost
Lower Murray Water’s managing director Anthony Couroupis said that there was the opportunity for stock and domestic users to access licences to construct and operate pumps on the riverbank, but acknowledged they were difficult to obtain.
“Construction on a riverbank and a riparian environment is very sensitive, and there are requirements for doing that,” he said.
“The best point of contact for anyone interested in that is to talk to us in the first place, and we can help anyone interested in achieving that [by] walking [them] through that process.”
Mr Couroupis said that Lower Murray Water was working hard to keep up with developments and infrastructure services in the growing regional towns of Mildura and Swan Hill, but that extending those services into Boundary Bend and Wood Wood would be challenging.
Mr Couroupis said the water treatment plant operators had to respond to changing water quality nearly every day, and that blue-green algae had been a greater challenge for the water authority over the past 10 years.
“Plants do such a great job of removing that and delivering the potable water and I guess that’s why there’s such interest from communities like Boundary Bend and Wood Wood to access these sorts of services,” he said.
‘This is not Australia in 2022’
Wayne McDonald, also a resident of Wood Wood, currently pumps river water for garden use and uses rainwater for the household.
“In recent years, we’ve had real fears that we were going to run out of rainwater, because the two tanks that we rely on were starting to get very, very low.”
Mr McDonald said he wasn’t fully aware of the water situation when he moved from Lismore to Wood Wood three and a half years ago.
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