murray river in death throes, page-7

There are a couple of books worth reading - Slow River by Steve Strevens which tells the story of one man's journey from the mouth of the Murray to its end at the sea, and 'Back from the Brink' which tells how Australia's landscape can be saved.

It is tragic to think that in less than 200 years we have virtually destroyed a river that has flown for tens of thousands of years.

'Flushing' the Murray which is the worlds slowest river, with Victorian water needed for irrigation, is not, in my opinion an ideal result. One should analyse what has gone wrong and try to rectify it with a longer term plan as opposed to a 'flush'.

Whilst South Australians may be desperate for a quick fix solution, do we allow Victorians to suffer and create another crisis there.

Part of the problem with the Murray lies in the fact that many logs and trees were cleared to make way for paddle steamers and boats with a deep draft. This meant that the flow rate changed and sped up, rather than allowing the water to progress on it's natural speed. When water speeds up, there is less time for it to seep into surrounding areas, also it takes more silt with it.

Flooding the Murray will only exacerbate that problem. Trying to work against nature is a virtually impossible task, those forces being relentless and more powerful than anything man can contrive.

We manipulated the Murray and are now paying the price.

Cheers,
Tangrams