Water donated to wetlands

Kilter believes the donations are the largest private water donations in Australian history.

The increase in the volume this year reflects the wetter conditions.

Kilter Rural chief investment officer Euan Friday said the company checked with storage volumes at the end of April before determining the level.

“We have larger donations when it’s wettest and smaller when it’s dry,” Mr Friday said.

The water aims to fill 21 high-value wetlands encompassing about 1600ha in the southern Murray-Darling Basin next financial year.

The water donation is the outcome of a partnership between The Nature Conservancy Australia, Kilter Rural and the Murray-Darling Wetlands Working Group, provided through the $85 million Murray-Darling Basin Balanced Water Fund, which has delivered an annualised return of 14.1 per cent to its investors since inception.

It is providing critical habitat for waterbirds, with monitoring already showing an increase in bird diversity of up to 212 per cent and an increase in bird abundance of 282 per cent following inundation of wetland areas to date.

The donation is also supporting the return of endangered species to the wetlands, including the southern bell frog, eastern regent parrot and Murray hardyhead.

Mr Friday said the partnership was an innovative model for delivering competitive returns to investors, while also generating significant measurable positive environmental outcomes through the provision of water to threatened wetlands.

The Nature Conservancy Australia conservation and science director James Fitzsimons said the Murray-Darling Basin Balanced Water Fund initiative had been a success.

“This fund has succeeded in balancing returns for investors with guaranteed conservation outcomes for wetlands and floodplains on private land,” Dr Fitzsimons said.

Kilter Rural was established in 2004 to deliver profit with impact — investing at scale in the regeneration of farmland, water and environmental assets.

Kilter Rural operates two water investment funds as well as an agricultural fund and has $250 million in funds under management.

Monitoring of the results of watering have demonstrated a clear response to environmental watering events, with increases in both diversity and abundance, according to the Environmental Water Trust.

“Waterbird breeding has been recorded in response to some watering events with breeding and immature birds recorded at four wetlands in the 2020-21 watering year,“ a report by the trust said.

“Environmental watering has provided suitable habitat across all sites for a range of waterbird guilds with a diversity of feeding/foraging behaviours including ducks, large waders and shorebirds. In total, the watering events have provided suitable habitat for 50 waterbird species.”

The Environmental Water Trust said there was also evidence to suggest the watering events provided important habitat for other fauna including woodland birds, with 46 species recorded across all sites to date, including the vulnerable white-fronted chat (epthianura albifrons).