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The Forum > Article Comments > The Murray-Darling River: journeys in search of a compelling narrative > Comments

The Murray-Darling River: journeys in search of a compelling narrative : Comments

By Diane Bell, published 9/1/2012

From Burke and Wills to the present, white Australians have never had a coherent understanding of the continent.

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What a relief to have a knowledgeable contribution to this issue. I don't use the word 'debate' because debate on an issue like the MDBA is not the point. As Diane Bell argues it's about listening to those who know the most - foremost among them Indigenous people who live along the river. The point about the MDBA Draft Plan, from what has been in the media so far and long interest in the river (I grew up on a farm along the Murrumbidgee) is that the system has to be looked at as a whole. So growing irrigation crops in semi-desert areas is not sensible. You only have to listen to the land to see that.

The problem is that governments and political parties and states want certainty. This is a river system that shifts and changes. It needs to be accompanied by 'plans' that shift and change with conditions. Listen to locals. Look at the history of the land. Act sensibly. One size fits all will not work. If need be make a provisional plan, catering to the needs of the river.
Posted by Susan Hawthorne, Monday, 9 January 2012 12:06:10 PM
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Moving to Kansas?

Historically, from the Fertile Crescent to the Sahara Desert, as human populations destroy fragile ecologies with divine aspirations of "can-do" technological progress, SUFFERING ensues and things GET WORSE as humans became more entrenched, promising great things.

Eventually the fragile ecologies collapse and some freaks suited to the harshness stay on while the rest either die or move to areas between great mountains and sweeping plains that have the THERMODYNAMIC properties that sustain life without all the trials, tribulations and profit and loss disasters.

All the stake holders of the MDB must be looking to New Zealand now. They are business people and shareholders right? They MUST know what I am saying is true. They will just get every last dollar out of the MDB and skip across the pond to NZ. Its not a big leap from cotton to Kiwi Fruit!

The MDB won't rebound. It is a fragile ecology that depended on many TRICKS that nature has. When those tricks are destroyed the ecologies retract rapidly. We know this from Nth Africa.

The MDB is finished. Be thankful for the taxes the corporations and shareholders paid before they left. Its all YOU Australians who have NO stake in the MDB at all, deserve.

Australia is destined for sub 20 million populations because of mismanagement in the face of poor mountain range quality.

Kick the lemon! Tasmania and New Zealand await you!
Posted by KAEP, Monday, 9 January 2012 12:28:14 PM
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Great article, Diane.
I worry that Tony Burke and Craig Knowles only view "adaptive management" by the noise of the irrigators at the rallies at Griffith and Shepparton.
There has been "less noise" this time round, therefore, they need to adapt less.
Wrong.
This always was a compromised plan, based upon a compromised figure, itself a reduction of what the Science indicated was necessary to keep the MDB flows healthy.
They are currently relying on the flood surges of the last two years.
What happens when the river flows revert to the norm?
Denis Wilson
Posted by Australian Water Campaigners, Monday, 9 January 2012 12:54:49 PM
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The article moved me - literally - to tears.
Water reform in the Murray-Darling has been a long, hard road. On the up side, the Darling does now figure in our plans. One the down side, before we have come close to acquiring the 2,750GL for the environment, it is proposed to dramtically increase groundwater extractions for the benefit of the mining and coal seam gas industries. Such developments will mobilise millions of tonnes of salt currently stored underground and safely out of harm's way. Will 2,750Gl be enough to flush all this out to sea? I doubt it.
I desparately want a Plan that DELIVERS for the environment, and the wildlife and communities that depend on it, but we must also have commmitments from all state governments for the resources necessary for monitoring and adaptively managing the meagre environmental water on offer.
It seems there is no hope of keep politics out of our rivers. Science-based decisions seem as elusive as they were in 1995 when the Cap was introduced.
I just hope I won't be shedding more buckets of tears when the first plan comes into effect.
Posted by Carolinem, Monday, 9 January 2012 1:35:31 PM
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Love the correlation Di...what changes? I read Patrice Newell's book, "the Olive Grove", a few years back. It related the selloff of water in NSW and opened my eyes to what politicians were up to there. Such an insidious way the Government had of making money. Sadly such philosophy undermines our future, and dare I reflect its application in the MDB is evidence of that. We need to work on a way to incorporate natural and public interests in the patchwork of intervention Governments have in our living and working environments. While it is only subjective legislation in law, and politicians that have any control, the evidence is we are lost.
Posted by Gary01, Monday, 9 January 2012 2:06:53 PM
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Gary, looking forward to reading the book. Thanks for the reference.

I would love to have more time to develop my ideas around the journey as metaphor and a lived reality, especially in terms gender, race and class.

What, for instance, might we learn from a careful reading of Jill Ker Conway's Road from Coorain? Not a journey to triumph: in her words, she had come to 'an intellectual dead end in Australia' but she cares very much for the future of our river systems and the country.

What about the classic Lewis and Clark (1804-6) crossing of the USA? It succeeded in part because of the knowledge of Sacagawea, a young Shoshone woman, who accompanied them. It was an expedition with both commercial and scientific goals and the expedition journals constitute an extraordinary rich account of the journey. Sacagawea was respected and 'even given a full vote in deciding where to spend the winter of 1805-6, though at the end of the expedition, it was her husband and not she who was paid for their work' (http://womenshistory.about.com/od/sacagawea/a/sacagawea.htm)

Back to Burke and Wills, John King survived because he was cared for by the Yandruwandha and Sarah Murgatroyd suggests that in that time he fathered a daughter whose story is know to his descendants in Ireland and NZ.
Posted by Diane, Monday, 9 January 2012 3:51:18 PM
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