A legal battle over controversial Murray River wetland projects is underway in Victoria. 

Environmental group Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park has launched a legal challenge against the federal approval of the Nyah “water offset” project under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. 

The project is one of nine initiatives within the Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration Project (VMFRP), which seeks to engineer wetlands to survive on reduced water.

Environmentalists argue the project will cause significant damage. 

Greg Foyster, Environment Victoria’s Rivers and Nature Campaign Manager, says “hundreds of big old trees” will be removed for infrastructure, and some habitats “may be completely drowned” while others will not get water at all. 

He criticised the projects as a "water offset" mechanism to reduce the overall environmental water allocation across the Murray-Darling Basin.

Dr Jacquie Kelly, chair of Friends of Nyah Vinifera Park, has labelled the projects “risky, destructive, and expensive”. 

Earlier this year, Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny rejected one of the nine projects on environmental grounds, while approving the Nyah and Vinifera projects despite acknowledging “significant adverse impacts” such as vegetation clearance and potential disturbance of Aboriginal heritage sites.

First Nations leaders have also voiced concerns. 

Brendan Kennedy, chair of the Murray Lower Darling Indigenous Nations, called the engineering a form of dispossession, saying; “What we don’t want is more regulators and structures on our Country”.

The Victorian government, defending the projects, claims they deliver “proven environmental outcomes” and contribute to water savings under the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism.

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