Mr Gambian said he was impressed with the amount of work undertaken to ensure the river system's health.

Mr Gambian says he'd seen 'bone dry' riverbeds in the regions and wanted to ensure changes prevented such sights in the future.

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Mr Gambian said he'd leave Dubbo impressed with the effort shown by local volunteers and groups in protecting the river, but warned of future risks.

"I think the first thing that stood out is the amount of work, done largely by volunteers, to restore the heart of the river ecosystem in Dubbo," Mr Gambian said.

"We're seeing things like the tree planting which are incredibly important to maintaining a healthy habitat for the region's fish."

Groups like Health Rivers and Rivercare were on hand to show Mr Gambian the efforts and their effects firsthand, as well as the OzFish River Repair Bus.

"Seeing the guys from OzFish and their involvement, obviously historically recreational fishers haven't been allies of the conservation movement, but they're doing great work and they obviously understand the need to protect these environments," Mr Gambian said.

"It was amazing to see a lot of the science that goes into preserving the river first-hand."

While the efforts were impressive, Mr Gambian said the Nature Conservation Council were concerned with how badly the river system was in need of further protection.

"The big issue is obviously how much water is there and available, there was some flow there, but that was only due to a recent release of environmental water," Mr Gambian said.

"So much of the rainfall that's been experienced lately is already gone; it's been taken up by flood-plain harvesting and other practices, a lot of the smaller farmers are missing out right now."

The NCC are hoping to continue in their efforts to push for reforms to the Murray-Darling Basin plan to ensure water supply.

"We're involved in an alliance of organisations across a number of states that have been working towards the same goal," Mr Gambian said.

"We want to make sure that when the Murray Darling Basin plan is reviewed, we're able to push for a more effective and responsible set of rules."

"Right now, there's just not enough water going into it, it's something we've long since started the work on, we want to make it sustainable from all perspectives."

He also said that greater education around water scarcity would be a necessity, as many in the cities and metropolitan areas don't understand the risks to native ecosystems.

"It's unthinkable to us that our rivers here would every dry up or stop running, we've become very accustomed to having water available," Mr Gambian said.

"Once you travel out towards the Central West and Far West, you understand that rivers can die and they can disappear."