The director of Murray-Darling Basin operations for SA’s Water Department, Andrew Beal, says “This is certainly the best year we’ve had in a decade in terms of flows into South Australia”. Read more here.
Murray River
SA Government Cancels Wellington Weir
The Greens have welcomed a South Australian Government decision to cancel any plans for a weir at Wellington on the lower Murray, saying the idea was always ill-conceived… the Premier said “What we now need to do is make sure that the new Murray-Darling plan has enough water for the Lower Lakes”. Read more here.
From Rod Kerkhoven in South Australia
I saw this one man from Adelaide University at Milang and I asked him about these barrages and he said that if they let the sea in the caravan park would have been flooded. He mentioned something about the Surveyor General’s Office telling the Premier that hundreds of acres of land would be inundated if the sea were allowed back in. I suppose it has risen since they put the dam things in which was in 1948… They are all slashing their paddocks early this year. In fact it gets earlier and earlier and I have been here for 20 years… One more thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu0kCa61VSo
‘Miracles, Media and the Murray’ on ABC TV
Backstage at the ABC Television studios on Monday night, after the Q&A program where I appeared as a panellist, the compere, Tony Jones, complained to Tim Flannery that he didn’t adequately refute my answers to the climate change questions. Of course, Tony could always invite me onto his Lateline program where he could ‘grill’ me himself.
For those who missed the Q&A program on television you can watch it here:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3034998.htm
It’s entitled ‘Miracles, Media and the Murray’.
I was disappointed the Murray issue was left until so late to be discussed. I’ve received some comment that I went too hard on this issue, and other comment that I didn’t say enough.
Interestingly I was invited onto Q&A specifically to discuss this issue and felt a need to at least provide the small amount of information that I did; in particular that the environment of the Lower Lakes could be dramatically improved by opening the huge steel and concrete barriers during periods of drought so that there was natural ebb and flow between the Lakes and the Southern Ocean.
For those of you wondering what was written on my tee shirt under the grey jacket, it was ‘Save the Murray: Remove the Barrages’.
Man Bites Murdoch
Former News Limited Editor, Bruce Gutherie, will be a panellist on ABC TV’s Q&A on Monday evening. In his new book ‘Man Bites Murdoch’ Mr Gutherie alleges a problem within the culture of News Ltd..
There is a problem not only within News Ltd but more generally within the mainstream media in Australia; too many journalists are advocates rather than dispassionate reports of the facts.
The News Ltd flagship, The Australian, ran a ‘Save the Murray’ campaign from 2001 until the October 2004 federal election. During this period it was repeatedly stated that there was a need for water to be taken from irrigators to save the River from rising salinity; never mind that salinity levels had been falling for nearly twenty years and were approaching historic lows.
I documented the newspaper’s campaign in an article published by Quadrant magazine in December 2004 entitled ‘Why Save the Murray’:
“I WAS SURPRISED when I learned that the Australian was running a “Saving the Murray” campaign. I realised that journalists often fail in their quest for the truth, but I assumed that they at least subscribed to the ideal. Campaigning – organised action to achieve a particular end – is the antithesis of honest reporting.
Environmentalism is now big business and big politics. It would therefore seem important that journalists at our national daily newspaper scrutinise the actions and the media releases from politicians, environmental activists and the growing industry and research lobby, particularly on an issue as important as the Murray River. Yet they were running a campaign.
Water Plan will decimate Murrumbidgee frogs
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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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.