Thread: The Darling river fish kill.

The article does state that the irrigators are not doing anything illegal. They are following the rules set up and administered by the MDBA.

I am pretty sure that nobody is saying what the irrigators are doing is Illegal.
What they ARE saying is that the MDBA has stuffed up BIG time with its management of the river by "Allowing" the irrigators to remove such a huge percentage of the rivers flow which is one of the major causes of this fish kill.
IF the irrigators weren't "Allowed" to take all this water in the first place the river would be in a FAR better condition to what it is now.

What the pollies and the MDBA HAVE to do is to choose between a few cotton farmers and the survival of one of Australia's biggest river systems AND the water supply to all the towns along this river that are now carting water for their households instead of getting it from the river.

The irrigators and associated businesses DO hold a lot of votes in their little part of Australia But in the scheme of things they are a tiny minority.
The rivers health and survival AND the supply of water for the various towns that rely on the river for their water are FAR more important than a few farmers that want to grow something that is slowly destroying the river.

Agree completely. This is a failure of NSW and federal government regulators.

We elect government's to act in the national interest, but instead they've pandered to a few irrigators while allowing the destruction of our nation's major waterway and the Menander Lakes.
This goes right across the political divide too - both the LNP and the ALP have been up to their necks in the Murray Darling Basin Plan, which clearly is a total failure.

People conveniently forget history. Back in the days of the paddle steamers the Darling River ran dry of several occasions in severe drought leaving the boats stranded until significant rain fell. No irrigators then. Some time ago I was told by an old chap who grew up in Corowa that the Murray stopped flowing about 1929 and you could walk along and across the dry bed. Remember the poem "of drought and flooding rain".

Drought is the natural state of much of Australia inland of the Dividing Range. Western Queensland graziers have a rule of thumb of one good year in seven. Last year a patriarch of a five generation Winton grazing family told me that they work on and plan around one good year in ten to give themselves a margin.

It's interesting to read about the science behind these fish kills. Large temperature swings and algal blooms seem to be a major part.

Murray-Darling fish kill: extreme weather and low river flow led to drop in oxygen levels | Australia news | The Guardian

I note that no one is talking about nutrient run off from farms as a cause of the algal blooms as well as high temps. I wonder why that is? If we're holding governments to account, let's hold everyone to account including those that add nitrates to the river. Everyone is partly responsible, including the farmers along the river.

How does it feel to be the generation responsible for an extinction event, and the replacement by an invasive species? edit. We took this country from people who existed and lived on it for what, 60,000 years? And in 200 years, have succeeded in ruining it.

Experts concerned after carp survives Menindee's mass fish kills - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

We elect government's to act in the national interest, but instead they've pandered to a few irrigators while allowing the destruction of our nation's major waterway and the Menander Lakes.
This goes right across the political divide too - both the LNP and the ALP have been up to their necks in the Murray Darling Basin Plan, which clearly is a total failure.

Subsequent post says not so.
So, what is "The Truth"?
Pickles.

Is it true or untrue that when irrigators were going to have their allocations (based on individual history) legally defined and saleable under a 'quota' system they knew anything about this beforehand?

What measures may they have done to get a decent allocation?

AFAIK this has never really been considered in the mix of things.

I have a fair bit of experience in the move to tradable quota allocation and management with respect to certain natural resource sectors and the whole water rights thing to me is just a joke.

Not saying this the only cause of this fish kill problem.

DL