The National Heritage listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River is one of Australia’s great remaining intact rivers, a raging torrent after heavy monsoonal rains, which recedes to pools and wetland refuges by the end of the dry season.
Known as Martuwarra and Bandaralngarri by the Aboriginal people who live in the Fitzroy Valley, the River is fundamental to the lives of the people of six language groups.
Aboriginal people have occupied the river valley for thousands of years. It has been under threat of destructive proposals for decades.
Watch inspiring and powerful Traditional Owners in the Voices of the River documentary web series as they share their fight to protect the River from large-scale water extraction.
National Heritage listed Martuwarra Fitzroy River
Photo: Damian Kelly
Stopping dams and land-clearing
EK was formed in 1996 in response to a proposal to build 3 dams on the Martuwarra Fitzroy River and its tributaries to irrigate 250,000 hectares of GM cotton. Alongside the Bunuba, Nyikina and Karajarri Traditional Owners, the Kimberley Land Council, state and national environment groups and wider community, we succesfully fought for eight years for the River and Country to be protected.
In the 2000s, we successfully campaigned against a proposal by then opposition leader Colin Barnett to send water by canal from the Martuwarra Fitzroy to drought-stricken Perth.
In 2011 the Martuwarra Fitzroy River system was placed on the Australia’s National Heritage List for its outstanding cultural and natural values.
In late 2016, at a meeting of traditional owner groups to talk about the protection and management of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, there was a call for the River to be given the highest level of protection from harmful activities including land clearing, the overuse of water, pollution, salinity and erosion. TheFitzroy River Declaration came out of this meeting. In 2018 the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council was formed to protect the river.
In 2017 billionaire Gina Rinehart said she wanted water from the Martuwarra.
The cotton farmer, John Logan, who proposed the dams in 1996, came up with a revamped proposal in 2017 that would've led to 300,000 hectares of landclearing in the Martuwarra Fitzroy River catchment and beyond. Our opposition killed off this scheme quickly.
In 2019 she said she wanted 325 billion litres a year - more than the 2 million people of Perth and the southwest use. The same year, more than 40 critically endangered sawfish died on her station.
Gogo pastoral lease in the Fitzroy Valley, leased by the Harris family from New South Wales, said they wanted to take 50 billion litres of water a year from the Margaret River a tributary of the Martuwarra.
A Fitzroy River Science Statement was signed by more than 100 scientists in 2018.
This historic commitment is a direct result of widespread support for protection of the Martuwarra and the 43,000 submissions sent by the Australian public in 2021, calling on the government to abandon plans to extract 300 billion litres of water from the river.
In 2023 another 17 critically endangered sawfish died on Gina Rinehart's Liveringa station.
In 2023 the WA Government made a commitment that no further surface water can be taken from the Martuwarra Fitzroy River.
Critically endangered sawfish in the Martuwarra Fitzroy River - the world's last global stronghold.
Photo: Alex Westover
TAKE ACTION
The Cook Labor government has released a draft management plan for public comment. See our response here - New Water Plan must prevent the Martuwarra Fitzroy River becoming WA’s Murray Darling disaster
"This is our opportunity to protect the river forever. We want to see an end to all the crazy, destructive schemes that would destroy the Martuwarra Fitzroy River." Martin Pritchard, Executive Director, Environs Kimberley.
Sign the petition to protect the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, now.