Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Ron Pike

Water Plan will decimate Murrumbidgee frogs

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RICE growers along the Murrumbidgee River are likely to be among the hardest hit if the federal government proceeds with its new water sharing plan. If the region loses 45 per cent of its current allocation as proposed by the Murray Darling Basin Authority, an unintended consequence will be a dramatic decline in the populations of over a dozen species of frog. These frogs have benefited from water being pooled in upper catchment areas for rice production; if the plan goes ahead more water will end up going down to South Australia and over the barrages into the Southern Ocean, to the detriment of flood plain wildlife.

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Bunyips in Australian Rivers (Part 2)

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ACCORDING to Australian aboriginal mythology Bunyips are monsters that live in rivers.  According to Ron Pike, an Australian who has spent his life working with water from the Murrumbidgee River, much of what is being claimed about Australian rivers is as unreasonable as a belief in Bunyips: 

“The lack of flow volumes in the rivers of the Murray Darling Basin (MDBC) in recent years is not due to irrigation and over extraction.  The facts are that without the storages and the irrigation industries, conditions would have been considerably worse.   Throughout the MDB there is presently more wetland habitat than there would have been had there been no irrigation for the last several years.  It is also wrong to suggest that increasing stream flows by releasing extra water from storages, somehow benefits the environment.   It makes no appreciable difference to the  environment whether the Murrumbidgee at say Narrandera is running at 3,500 megalitres per day or 25,000 megalitres per day. The flows in both cases remain within the banks and do not, and cannot, water the floodplain or most wetlands.

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Bunyips in Australian Rivers (Part 1)

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IN Aboriginal mythology the Bunyip was also known as Dongus, Kianpratty, Bunyup and Tumbata, depending on the tribal area. However regardless of name he was always evil and emerged from the water in search of prey as he sought to use his supernatural powers to punish evil doers.

While it is easy for modern man to pass this off as superstition, much of what is being claimed in relation to the rivers of the Murray Darling Basin is as unreasonable as a belief in Bunyips.

To begin to understand the ecology and the unique environment of the Murray Darling Basin, we need to revisit some of the observations made by the first explorers after the arrival of white man in Australia.

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No Shortage of Water in Australia

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ON a daily basis we hear the following two statements repeated in relation to water in Australia: 1. That Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth; and 2. That water is very scarce in Australia and we must take immediate action to conserve it. It is time we took a closer look at these assumed facts.  

If we convert the average annual rainfall into megalitres and do the same for the other continents, then yes, Australia does receive the least precipitation of all of the inhabited continents.  This is exemplified by comparing some average runoff data.  Of all of the rain that falls on Australia about 11% finds its way to the sea via our river system, which on average amounts to 290 million megalitres per year from mainland Australia. Another 50million megalitres runs to the sea from Tasmania.   By comparison the Mississippi river alone in USA averages a discharge of 560 million megalitres annually – almost double all of the rivers from mainland Australia. The Yangtze Kiang in China discharges 690 million megalitres annually and the Amazon in Brazil nearly ten times that amount.

So, yes, Australia does have meager water supplies compared to the other continents, but these figures lack relevance unless we consider two other vital factors. [Read more…] about No Shortage of Water in Australia