The National Irrigators Council (NIC) met in Goondiwindi this week, with delegates from across the Murray-Darling Basin attending. A highlight of NIC’s annual regional meeting is the field visit, which took place on Wednesday.

Key activities included a visit to local irrigator and cotton grower Georgia Brown’s property, “Maplemore,” where the group gained valuable insights into the policy issues and technical limitations of floodplain harvesting licensing and metering.

The group then visited “Älcheringa,” the property of Goondiwindi Cotton founder Sam Coulton. Sam discussed his efforts to educate people on irrigation and cotton through his regular on-property tours.

The final stop was the Woods Brothers Goondiwindi Algae Farm, where they are producing food-grade Omega-3 by farming seawater algae, producing a high-value product from small volumes of groundwater.

NIC’s formal meeting on Thursday included updates on the Basin Plan from Murray-Darling Basin Authority CEO Andrew McConville and water recovery projects by Federal Government officials.

The meeting also considered NIC’s key policy positions, and in particular it’s Federal Election policy.