NOT SO MIGHTY MURRAY

i know it makes me very sad. all that ruds money -stimulas package - should have gone to pay the farmers along the murray 2 years wages so they would stop pumping , and give it a chance to recover. but maybe not that simple. it would help australia in the long term too.

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qubert
have a read of last weeks The Land page 7 interesting article on the Murray Darling and inflows ect.
Cheers

It's both. We have over allocated the water. We have increased the size of cities. And the inflows have declined. All at the same time. The only mob to be blamed are all of us about 20 years ago when we wouldn't listen to what the much laughed at Greenies were telling us. I presume we all saw the pictures from the Antarctic last week? It isn't a drought. it's the new reality for southern Australia.
This week the SA Libs forecast that Adelaide would completely run out of water in (I think it was 18 months).
I don't normally go along with royalty, but I reckon Prince Charley got it about right recently when he compared the world to the old boiling frog that wont hop out of the water story. We keep hoping the greens were wrong so we dont actually do anything much and sooner or later it will be too late to hop out.
I think it is time to get rid of the States so we all stop passing the buck and one all Australian government , no matter what Party it is, can start making policy for all of Australia, and quickly.

The problems with the Murray have existed for 10 years or more. Only during the past couple of years, since introduction of tighter water restrictions to irrigators etc that 'panic' has finally started to set in. Sustainable river flows have not occurred in the mighty river for a long time. Large areas of native vegetation are dying as a result of prolonged dry and reduced flows. Increased levels of nutrients from sewerage treatment plants upper river have resulted in more frequent outbreaks of algae bloom. As for the lower lakes, they are in a very sad state and it will take a monumental flow to restore them to what they once were. Surprisingly the Victorian Govt. still allows irrigators to pump large amounts of water from the river despite irrigators lower down having their allocations all but reduced.

There was a story on Landline about 6 months ago and it showed the PM of the time saying that if we allowed the decline of the Murray system to continue it would be a national disgrace.
The thing was it was an portion of a story done in 1977!!....
Politicians tell the electors what they want to here until they forget, they couldn't run a business but they run the country.

Mark

What I can't work out and I have to do it every year we here SA are on 18% water allocation that 18% of the 100% we use to have, for our vineyards and fruit properties but we can buy water if we have the money from Vic or NSW.When Vic is on a higher allocation and so is NSW how can we do anything abot the River when only a few have to take a huge reduction in water allocation.Shouldn't it be all equal so we share.

Cheers Scoof . :-)

You have to love the way Qld sold off water rights just before the Commonwealth took over Murray water and you have to love the way SA is rippimg the guts out of the Great Artesian basin water supply for its mines. In another 10 years, pastoral Australia will be screamimg about this just like sA is screaming about cotton and rice allocations up river.
Like I said before, States have outlived their usefulness. They just can't respond to the kinds of national pssues that now have to be tackled. But we should keep them with powers about the same as local councils so we can still have our footy rivalries.