Water embargo prompts Ulah, Walgett listing by farmer David Fleming

Farmer David Fleming is listing Ulah at Walgett, in northern NSW. 

David Fleming says he's made the difficult decision to put his farm on the market - pushed into a corner by poor government policies.

"We're going to test the market…which may not even be there," he told ABC Rural Radio.

The farm is currently deep in drought; and he can not plant an irrigation crop because authorities had put an embargo on pumping from the Barwon Darling River system to ensure that there was sufficient water stored in the Menindee Lakes to meet Broken Hill's town water requirements.

Ulah has a diminished combination of cattle production, dryland farming and a relatively small irrigation operation. 

Earlier this year he wrote an open letter to the NSW Department of Primary Industries deputy director general water stating his case to grow 900 acres of chickpeas - which could generate $700,000 of potential income.

"My livelihood is at stake; I require five days pumping to plant chickpeas.

"If I don't receive permission to do so, then I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"What would you suggest I do? Lose the farm? Or start the pump?"

He said his bank had been extremely supportive, but the embargo imperilled the next 12 months.

He pointed the finger at bad bureaucratic interference on water policy and ministers who are puppets of the bureaucracy.

The Fleming family has been grazing cattle and growing crops for over 130 years at Ulah through drought and flood.

The NSW Minister for Primary Industries and Water Niall Blair says they could only lift the embargo when they were sure that the water was available to provide human need in Broken Hill.