Healthy Rivers & Nature

A healthy Murray-Darling Basin

On the world’s driest inhabited continent, water is life. But Australia’s largest and most important river system – the Murray-Darling – is on the brink of collapse, and we need your help to restore it to health. 

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The Murray-Darling Basin is a mighty system of rivers, lakes and wetlands, covering a large part of south-eastern Australia. It’s home to globally important wetlands, majestic river red gum forests and nearly 100 different species of waterbirds.

People depend on the health of the river system too. More than two million people live in the Basin, including 40 different First Nations, and they rely on this river water for drinking, farming, fishing and swimming.

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But after years of mismanagement, the Murray-Darling Basin is on the brink of ecological collapse. In the last decade we’ve seen dry riverbeds, toxic algae blooms and massive fish kills.

The river system is complex, but the core problem is simple – people have been taking too much water from the river, which doesn’t leave enough to sustain the wildlife and wetlands that also need a decent drink.

KEEP READING:

  1. The vision behind the Murray-Darling Basin Plan
  2. How the Plan has been bastardised
  3. How Victoria is affected
  4. The impact of climate change
  5. 4 ways to revive our rivers

The vision 

The Murray Darling Basin Plan was supposed to fix this. Back in 2007, Prime Minister John Howard’s vision was for “radical and permanent change” to the way our biggest river system was managed.  

Howard said the Basin Plan would address over-allocation of water “once and for all”. It would reduce how much water could be taken from the river, leaving enough for the wetlands, forests, birds, fish and frogs to survive. 

Bastardising the Basin Plan 

But having a plan is one thing, and following through on it is another. Right from the start, a handful of powerful corporate interests and their cashed-up lobbyists have lobbied governments to undermine the Plan and rig the rules in their favour. 

With every political sell-out and backroom deal, the vision behind the Basin Plan has been bastardised:

In the news: The Basin Plan has been compromised at every turn.

  • The total amount of water to be returned to rivers is far below what the science recommends. [1] 
  • Recovering that water for the environment has been constantly delayed. [2]
  • The cheapest and most effective method of recovering water for the environment – buying it back – has been ruled out in favour of dubious ‘efficiency’ projects. [3] 
  • Governments have turned a blind eye to blatant water theft. [4]  
  • Some landowners have built earthworks to capture floodwaters in huge private dams, instead of letting it flow naturally down the river. NSW is now attempting to make this unfair practise legal. [5] 
  • Private property is blocking natural floods from reaching the wetlands that need them. Only 21 percent of water for the environment floods over the bank to keep the floodplain healthy. [6] 

The list goes on, each political deal undermining the whole point – to reduce how much water is taken from the river. 

After years of this, we’re in a situation that benefits a chosen few. Water is going to the people with the most money or the best connections, leaving the community and environment to suffer. 

Join 10,000 Australians – add your photo to the map

Right across the Murray-Darling Basin, thousands of people are raising their voices for healthy rivers and communities. Share your photo or message — what’s your connection to the Murray-Darling Basin and why do you want to see our rivers protected?

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Find out more about the Murray Darling Conservation Alliance

How Victoria is affected 

While a lot of recent attention has focused on the northern Basin, the rivers of southern NSW and northern Victoria are suffering too. The historic overallocation of major rivers like the Murrumbidgee, Lachlan, Goulburn, Campaspe, Loddon and Murray has never been fully addressed – which means an unsustainable amount of water is still diverted to irrigation, leaving nowhere near enough for a healthy river ecosystem.

The Murray-Darling Basin. Credit ABC

Plus when the Darling River doesn’t flow, that puts more pressure on the Murray River to meet downstream demands, supplying water to large irrigators around Mildura while making sure South Australia gets the water it needs.

As a result, some Victorian rivers that feed into the Murray have been treated like irrigation channels. Huge volumes of water have been pushed down the Goulburn River to the Murray, eroding riverbanks to the point of collapse, destroying critical fish habitat and damaging important Indigenous cultural sites. In recent years, we’ve been able to secure stronger limits on these destructive flows for the first time. But we will keep pushing for greater protection.

Australia has a highly variable climate, and wetter years can bring some welcome relief. River red gums drink deeply, wetlands are replenished and waterbirds raise clutches of chicks. But unless we fix the core problems with water management in the Murray-Darling Basin,  these wetter years won’t be enough to keep the river system alive. 

After all, nothing can survive on a decent drink once every twenty years. 

Learn more about why our rivers are in trouble

Climate and future choices 

On top of all this, there’s climate change. A hotter, drier climate means less water is flowing into the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin.   

As a result, competition for water is only going to get worse. If a handful of rogue irrigators lobby to continue taking more than their fair share, but the overall amount of water in the river system decreases, that leaves even less for the environment. 

If we do nothing, regional communities could face a frightening future. A few large players would own most of the water,  leaving everyone else with sick rivers and too little water to go around. 

But if we act now we can secure a better future for the Basin. A future with thriving regional communities that have diverse industries providing good jobs. A future where rivers and wetlands are brimming with life, and First Nations have the right to protect, manage and own water on their traditional Country. 

We can revive our rivers and communities, and it starts with going back to first principles – reducing the unsustainable amount of water taken from our rivers. 

4 ways to revive our rivers

A healthy river benefits everyone. If we take care of the river, the river takes care of us. 

The Basin Plan will be reviewed in 2026. It’s up to us to ensure our rivers have a voice – and that governments feel pressure to make the big, bold changes needed to secure a healthy, thriving future for Australia’s biggest river system.

We can have a living river and communities that thrive in partnership with it. Here’s how:

1. More water for rivers

Too much water has been taken from inland rivers for too long, denying them the flows they need to be healthy. When rivers have the water they need, they sustain a thriving web of birds, plants, fish, molluscs and other animals in a myriad of wetlands, aquifers and floodplains. Rivers need water so they can continue to support the oldest living culture on the planet. We need to set targets to return that water to the river, taking into account the impacts of a hotter, drier climate, and confidently measuring our progress.

2. Natural rhythm of river flows

Rivers need to flood regularly. The floodplain developed over thousands of years to support a delicate mosaic of different vegetation and habitat. Centuries-old River Red Gums, riverine wetlands and Black Box woodlands need a cycle of wetting and drying. Allowing more regular small to medium floods would sustain these places and reduce the severity of blackwater events. By collaborating with communities on the floodplain, upgrading and relocating flood-prone infrastructure, these landscapes can get the water they need. We can restore natural flows, instead of re-engineering the floodplain.

3. Water justice for Traditional Owners

The Basin is the ancestral domain for over 40 First Nations but colonisation has left them with few rights over land and water. Over-extraction and water markets have doubled down on this dispossession – further damaging Country, disempowering Traditional Owners in water management and denying their share of wealth made from their land. Until we address this history, any pursuit of reconciliation will remain out of reach. Recognising self-determination means returning water to support cultural traditions and community development. We need to make sure First Nations have a say over how rivers and Country are managed.

4.

Water market within ecological limits

The current water market is flawed, leading to negative impacts on both people and the environment. Speculators and large corporations are making huge profits, while local communities suffer. Dishonest actors, such as those building illegal dams and exploiting loopholes in water-sharing plans, have undermined the system. This has disrupted the natural flow of rivers, damaging riverbanks and harming fish populations. We need a water market that serves the needs of people and respects ecological limits.

5. Resilient regional communities

River communities are entitled to employment, income, education, health care, decent housing and a high standard of living. Regional communities are also on the front lines of climate change, disappearing river flows and erratic flood events. We need ongoing funding for communities to adapt to a drying climate with diverse, resilient economies.

Read more in our 5 point vision for the Murray Darling Conservation Alliance here >>

Header image: John Morton. Available on Flickr under CC BY-SA 2.0 licence. Image flipped.

Footnotes

  1. MDBA, Guide to the proposed Basin Plan – Technical Background (2010) and https://www.smh.com.au/national/key-scientists-cast-doubt-on-murray-water-return-20110520-1ewur.html 
  2. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-25/conflicts-cost-blowouts-time-delays-in-mdbp-says-commission/10749592 
  3. https://watersource.awa.asn.au/environment/natural-environment/what-were-the-key-findings-of-the-sa-murray-darling-basin-royal-commission/
  4. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-24/murray-darling-basin-water-pumped-by-irrigators/8732702
  5. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/23/nsw-government-plan-to-legalise-floodplain-water-harvesting-defeated-in-parliament
  6. Chen, Y., M. J. Colloff, A. Lukasiewicz, and J. Pittock. in press. ‘A trickle, not a flood: Environmental watering in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’. (2020). Covered in https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-17/murray-darling-missing-water-in-floodplains/12887342  

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