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In Australia's Murray–Darling Basin, efforts to restore water justice for the environment have focused on environmental flows for natural values of wetlands and floodplains. But there has also been an emergence of collaborative partnerships between environmental water managers and First Nations community organizations to water 'Country'. The A$180 million Gayini Nimmie-Caira water-saving project saw the New South Wales and Australian governments purchase 19 properties on the Lowbidgee Floodplain, together with associated water rights, with the aim of delivering environmental flows, protecting First Nations cultural heritage and ensuring long-term sustainable land management. A consortium of environmental non-governmental organizations, First Nations and scientific organizations successfully tendered for the long-term management of the 88,000 ha property, Gayini Nimmie-Caira. This case study is used here to discuss water (and land) justice from the perspective of the Nari Nari people, the Traditional Custodians of Gayini Nimmie-Caira and the applicability of this model to other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land purchase in Ireland is often regarded by historians as resulting in the pacification and de-politicisation of formerly unsettled local communities. This conclusion may be premature given that we do not yet know the details of how land purchase was actually implemented at the local level, and why, and with what consequences. By exploring the way in which land purchase was conducted in a single community, this article suggests that the United Irish League, a major influence on the actual operation of land purchase, often contradicted its own constitution by allocating additional grazing land to large farmers and shopkeepers rather than to poor small farmers or the landless. As a result, alternative tenant movements were established to defend small farmer' rights – like the Galway Secret Society – and these sometimes became the basis for subsequent Republican organisations including Sinn Fein. Far from bringing peace, land reform – as overseen by the United Irish League – actually generated greater conflict within local communities and may have provided the impetus for violent Republicanism in some communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]