Queensland water management: sold down the river

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service river ecologist Dr Richard Kingsford is predicting "a major long term ecological collapse" of the Narran Lakes, a world listed wetland just over the border, which hosts migratory birds from Siberia and Western China.

Narran is also one of the last major breeding grounds for the straw necked ibis, known as "the farmers' friends" for their appetite for plague locusts.

"The birds need a flood event every five years to breed and the best the Queensland WAMP is going to deliver is a flood event every 14 years," Dr Kingsford said.

"The ibis lives for eight years."