EDO and clients lodge joint submission with UN Special Rapporteur on Aboriginal Water Dispossession

Walgett’s Dharriwaa Elders Group, Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations and the Environmental Defenders Office collaborated to make a joint submission responding to a call by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment for input to a report on “Too Dirty, Too Little, Too Much: The Global Water Crisis and Human Rights”. […]

Read More…

Floodplain harvesting: without the necessary protections, legal action is a risk

In a recent submission on floodplain harvesting, the EDO and the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists argued that “conferring permanent property rights to irrigators is a windfall transfer of public wealth that should be considered only once public good outcomes can be guaranteed, including for Aboriginal Nations who are disproportionately disadvantaged under the current policy […]

Read More…

Announcing a new EDO team

The Environmental Defenders Office is proud to announce its new national team, bringing together scientific and legal experts across the country to provide best-in-class legal services to its clients in Australia and the Pacific. The new team is carefully designed to ensure we retain a local presence in key communities around the country, improve service […]

Read More…

Case Summary: Corporate Irrigator found guilty of breaching the Water Management Act

Dr Emma Carmody, Special CounselKimberley Slapp, Legal Intern Introduction Australia is an extremely dry continent that is in the process of becoming drier, including across swathes of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). For example, recently published research found that by 2070, most of Lake Eyre and parts of the MDB could become enveloped by the arid […]

Read More…

Analysis: Beyond ‘shut-up water’, Getting water sharing plans to work for rivers and people

By Dr Emma Carmody, EDO Special Counsel and water law expert It’s 2018 and I’m standing in the far west of NSW on the banks of the Darling River, or Barka, as it is known to its Traditional Custodians, the Barkindji people. I’m listening to Barkindji elder Uncle Badger Bates explain what he means by […]

Read More…

Our clients

Environmental Defenders Office represents a diverse range of public interest clients. Meet just a few of them. EDO is representing Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action who are calling on the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) in NSW to develop a climate change policy to regulate greenhouse gas pollutants. “Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action has been really thrilled […]

Read More…

Analysis: Climate change and water governance in an era of high-tech irrigation

Improving adaptation, sustainability, transparency and public trust On 19 February this year, Dr Emma Carmody, EDO’s Special Counsel and water law expert, gave this opening address at an international workshop jointly sponsored by the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law, University of Sydney Law School and Environmental Defenders Office. Here Emma explains why making […]

Read More…