Snowy River Alliance (SRA) chair Vickii Wallace said she hopes the community will support the even and come along to hear about what is happening with the Snowy River.

“We decided to hold the Snowy River Day on Saturday this year, so more people will be able to get there,” Mrs Wallace said.

The highest flow rate will occur at Jindabyne Dam from 8am Wednesday, October 17 to 8am Thursday and will be 5,000 megalitres per day for the 24 hour period. 

For the remainder of Thursday, the flow rate will be about 1,996 megalitres per day. The flow rate will drop back to a target of about 1,072 megalitres per day on Friday.

The high flow even has been officially nammed ‘Wai-Garl’, which means River Black Fish in recognition of the Maneroo-Ngarigo traditional people who have an enduring and strong connection to the Snowy River.

Author of the Snowy River Story will be speaking at Saturday’s celebrations about her book which tells the story of the local community campaign to save the Snowy River after the construction of the Jindabyne Dame in 1967, which reduced the Snowy River’s natural flow to a one percent trickle.

The former NSW Minister for the Environment, Bob Debus has also agreed to speak at the Snowy River Day again this year.

It was during his time as Environment minister that Mr Debus was responsible for bringing about the agreement with the Commonwealth, Victorian and NSW Governments in 2000, to restore environmental water flows to the Snowy River from one per cent flow to 28 per cent.

Mrs Wallace said she’d be talking about the main issues the Snowy River Alliance is working on to safeguard the health of the Snowy river and the well-being of downstream communities.

Snowy River Day is at the Dalgety Memorial Hall on Saturday between 9.30am to 1.30pm.  There will be displays, free barbecue and a children’s WaterWatch activity after lunch.