ABC Online is running two stories on dredging.
One is about dredging at the mouth of the Murray, see http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1428180.htm
In this story, Brenton Erdmann from South Australia’s Water Department is quoted stating that dredging has made a big difference, “We’ve been dredging continuously for 24 hours, seven days a week for coming up to three years now so we’re really starting to see the benefits of that.”
I am not sure from the piece what the benefits are.
Interestingly, when Charles Sturt arrived at Lake Alexandrina (bottom of the Murray) in 1830 what we now consider the Murray’s mouth was back then a maze of impassable sandbars.
The other story is about Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay and how a flotilla plans to blockade the entry of a dredging ship on the basis dredging will destroy marine life in the area, see http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1427699.htm.
So it’s good to dredge the mouth of the Murray, but bad to dredge Port Phillip Bay?
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.