One of the nation's leading conservation groups has entered the water market, planning to buy about 200 million litres of water for use in the Hattah Lakes wetlands in northwestern Victoria.
The Australian Conservation Foundation, with financial support from credit union mecu, will spend about $40,000 in April purchasing the equivalent of 80 Olympic size swimming pools.
The foundation is not convinced floodwaters entering the northern part of the Murray-Darling Basin following records rains in Queensland will make it all the way to wetlands such as Hattah Lakes.
"That's because big irrigators like Cubbie Station are extracting and storing so much of the flood water," said Paul Sinclair, head of the foundation's healthy ecosystems program.
The federal government had been buying some water and returning it for use in "desperately dry" wetlands elsewhere in the basin.
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"But it needs to do more," Dr Sinclair said in a statement, adding many people were frustrated by the slow pace of action to rescue wetlands.
The foundation is giving people the opportunity to participate in reviving a wetland by donating $15 to the Just Add Water initiative.
That amount will buy about 75,000 litres, based on recent average water prices.
Making a donation would send a strong message to the federal government that Australians expected the Murray-Darling Basin to be protected, the foundation said.
The Hattah Lakes wetlands are about 70 kilometres south of Mildura.
