Talk Until the Talking Starts – Resolving Conflict through Dialogue

Boully L¹*, McCollum B²*, Vanderbyl T³* and Claydon G⁴*

1. Lower Balonne Ministerial Water Resources Advisory Council, Dirranbandi, Queensland, Australia
2. Border Rivers Food and Fibre, Goondiwindi, Queensland, Australia
3. SunWater, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
4. Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Water sharing between users, and between users and the environment, has been a focus for communities in the Qld Murray Darling and governments for many years. Successful water resource planning relies on good data and science but is impossible to achieve without the people involved being committed to communicating, negotiating and achieving shared objectives through a respectful, transparent and unthreatening process.

Use of a consensus based approach, including active involvement of community and industry leaders and opinion shapers, and strong support and open availability of information from government agencies, has allowed community and government to jointly develop solutions and make decisions that are more creative and more widely supported than those made using traditional decision making methods. The participants are able to gain a mutual respect for and an understanding of each others viewpoints allowing them to look for mutual gains through the negotiation process.

Through the use of the best available hydrologic data and ecological science, community and government have together acknowledged the risks to specific ecological assets and to the economic viability of the region if the ‘business as usual’ scenario is adhered to. With the ultimate goal being the establishment of ‘social harmony’, the process of learning, debate and negotiation has successfully dealt with equity between most users and between users and the environment.

This paper will compare and contrast the history of conflict in the Queensland/New South Wales Border Rivers and Lower Balonne river valleys in Australia. It will examine the challenges faced by both governments and communities and the processes that evolved to develop approaches to water resource sharing that are innovative and have community ownership together with government endorsement.

Making community capacity building a priority in preparation for, during and after water resource planning consultative activities has proved to be a solid foundation for frank and constructive dialogue. The lessons learned from this exercise in community – government relations are likely to be of great benefit to other community-driven resource allocation and management processes. The perspectives of both Government and community organisations are presented to assist people involved in or preparing for community engagement processes.

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