First Nations water planning and management
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First Nations water policy and planning
Freshwater systems are fundamental to Aboriginal cultures and identities, and First Nations have profound perspectives and understanding of water across the South Australian landscape. This is increasingly being recognised through state and national water policy and planning.
The Landscape South Australia Act 2019requires the integration of traditional First Nations knowledge into decision making and efforts are underway to better recognise and give effect to First Nations’ water interests. An authorisation is also in place for Native Title holders to take water to exercise their native title rights and interests, which includes personal, domestic, cultural, spiritual or non-commercial communal needs.
Regional landscape boards work with First Nations in water planning and management to ensure their water values and needs are considered in both water allocation planning and natural resource management. As water allocation plans are reviewed and updated, stronger cultural objectives are included and partnerships formed to work towards desired outcomes.
The Government of South Australia has committed to work with First Nations and peak bodies to improve water planning processes and outcomes within the state. The co-design of a South Australian Framework to Advance First Nations Water Interests will support this commitment, as well as identify actions to secure access to water for spiritual, cultural, social, environmental and economic purposes.
First Nations and water for the environment
Annual water for the environment planning is informed by the Long-Term Environmental Watering Plan for the South Australian River Murray (Long-Term Plan).
The Department for Environment and Water (DEW) partner with First Nations in the long-term planning of environmental watering to ensure First Nations cultural knowledge, values and aspirations inform the management of water for the environment in the River Murray, from the South Australian border to the Murray Mouth, including the river channel, its floodplains, Lakes Alexandrina and Albert (Lower Lakes), and the Coorong.
Incorporating cultural knowledge and values in the Long-Term Plan, together with outcomes from monitoring, research and management, helps to support the plants, animals and communities that depend on the river. This cultural knowledge is then considered when making decisions about how and where water for the environment is delivered.
The Long-Term Plan’s purpose is to inform management decisions regarding the delivery of water for the environment by:
- engaging and embedding First Nation values into environmental water management
- describing the ecological objectives, targets and flow regimes.
History of water management by First Nations
Water availability has always guided human settlement in South Australia.
The area that is now the city and suburbs of Adelaide, from the coast to the foothills of the Mount Lofty Ranges, is the home to the Kaurna people with surrounding lands home to the Ngarrindgeri, Ngadjuri and Peramangk.
The rivers crossing the plain have always held special significance to the Kaurna. The River Torrens, known to the Kaurna by names including Karrawirraparri (Red gum forest river) or Tarndaparri (Red kangaroo river) was in summer a series of large waterholes with a trickle of water, which sometimes disappeared under sections of gravel and sandy bed. In winter the river was full of water. When in flood the river was known as Yertalla.
The Kaurna moved between the coastal lagoons, the body of the river and the foothills throughout the year as the freshwater availability changed, or in response to large floods that covered much of the Adelaide plain.
