http://www.standard.net.au/story/3800044/river-opening-leads-to-f...

http://www.standard.net.au/story/3800044/river-opening-leads-to-fish-kill/?cs=72

"He said the biggest problem with the river’s health was the volume of water pumped out to supply Warrnambool.

The Gellibrand River provides most of Warrnambool’s water supply."

I found this article in the same newspaper interesting.

It seems Warrnambool has an ongoing problem with the river that supplies it with freshwater silting up and becoming stagnant during prolonged dry spells.

If it is happening there, no doubt other towns on the southern Victorian and South Australian coasts would be having similar problems.  Population growth in that region would only be adding to the problem.

From what I have read, the southern parts of Australia are expected to become drier as global warming increases.

It would seem there are very few options available to combat these problems other than desalination.

Luckily for them, this same coastline happens to have very good wave resources close to the main population centres.

Small scale wave/wind/solar powered desalination plants could be a very good way to guarantee water supply when it gets worse.