Mungindi farmer Ranald Warby recognised for four decades of commitment to Great Artesian Basin

After nearly 40 years, Mr Warby has decided to step down from his involvement with the Great Artesian Basin and to thank him for his commitment, members of the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment recently took him out to dinner in Moree.

Mr Warby was grateful for the recognition but said it's not why he has been involved for all of these years.

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"It's something I've been very passionate about and something I've been emotional about, especially in times of drought," he said.

"I really have been committed to preserving the Great Artesian Basin. The gain in the pressure of the GAB is being achieved, since the capping and piping program commenced."

In the early 1980s, Mr Warby recognised a need to cap and pipe bore drains.

"Ninety per cent of the water was being wasted through evaporation and soakage, down open bore drains," he explained.

"I was very keen to improve the situation and began working with the department on a capping and piping scheme."

Promoting the need to pipe the bore drains in the early '80s, Mr Warby became an active member of the first stakeholder group advising the NSW government on the initial capping and piping schemes.

Since then he has been a member of the various stakeholder advisory groups to the relevant minister regarding the cap and pipe schemes, as well as the overall management of the Great Artesian Basin.

He spent many years as the chairperson for the NSW Great Artesian Basin Advisory Group - a ministerially-appointed committee originally established in 2006 under the Water Management Act 2000 to provide advice to the minister on matters in the NSW Great Artesian Basin.

As part of that role, he attended various Great Artesian Basin Coordinating Committee (GAB CC) meetings as NSW's stakeholder representative. The role of the GAB CC is to provide advice from community organisations and agencies across the states of the GAB to ministers on effective whole-of-resource management of the basin.

Mr Warby has worked with his counterparts in Queensland and South Australia to ensure the communities' interests across the GAB are forefront of government GAB programs and has been instrumental in getting government commitment to renewed funding programs for capping and piping the artesian bores.

The capping and piping programs have had great success, with an increase in pressures improving the overall long-term outlook for the artesian basin.

Mr Warby said before the bores were capped and piped, the pressure of the water was declining and the amount of water flowing was decreasing.

"Some of the bores that had been flowing were not flowing anymore," he said.

"Our farm was at the end of our trust system - a bore with 20 landholders attached - and every summer we encountered problems due to evaporation and soakage.

"Now, with the capping and piping, we've got guaranteed clean water in every paddock of the property.

"The pressure in the basin has risen significantly, particularly in this area. Eight of the highest 12 flowing bores are all in this area.

"From Goondiwindi as far as Narrabri, and out to Walgett and Lightning Ridge, there have been big gains in pressure.

"It's terrific."

Mr Warby said if they hadn't capped and piped, he would have sold all of his sheep four years ago because he wouldn't have had enough water to keep them.

"The pressure in the basin would have kept dropping which would have meant a lot of people without water," he said.

Mr Warby said the drought has highlighted just how crucial the capping and piping of bores is.

"This last drought has brought home how important the capping and piping program has been for the western areas of NSW dependent on the artesian basin water as they have had continuing access to artesian supplies," he said.

"Western towns like Mungindi have really relied on bore water, which they could use without being detrimental to the basin."