Southern Riverina Drought Resilience Plan

Published on 22 August 2023

The Berrigan Shire Council, along with Murray River, Edward River and Federation Council are excited to announce they have been successful in attracting $560,000 worth of funding to develop a Southern Riverina Drought Resilience Plan that will work across all four Councils.

The project is jointly funded by the Australian Government and the NSW Government under the Future Drought Fund. The project will include community engagement across all Local Government Areas and a six week engagement and feedback process with the CSIRO. The Council group have jointly engaged GHD Associates to develop the plan and to provide advice to each Council as to its implementation process.

Mayors Matthew Hannan, Chris Bilkey, Peter Betts and Pat Bourke made a joint statement saying, “We will be engaging all communities across the footprint of this plan to ensure the lessons of the millennial drought, and other recent drought experiences can be considered and learnings from those experiences included in our Southern Riverina Drought Resilience Plan.”

“Drought does not respect Local Government boundaries,” they said, “and we believe working as a cohesive team will respect the similarity and difference of experience. It will also provide a cost effective solution to addressing this pressing climate change issue without the need for duplication of effort.”

All Councils see the development of the Southern Riverina Drought Resilience Plan as a positive outcome for the area and a chance to highlight not only the synergies between our communities, but the fact our Councils often are called to assist the other and have developed highly effective working relationships, particularly during recent events.

“All Councils are asking their communities to actively engage with this process so their ideas and thoughts on drought preparation, management and recovery are captured and implemented in consistent ways across the Southern Riverina area,” Mayor Hannan said.