by Eric J Taylor

Created on: December 23, 2008   Last Updated: January 01, 2009

To state that a river can affect the vitality of a region is a gross understatement. The health of a river affects the vitality of nations. A noticable example of how this occurs is shown through the damage caused by abuse of Australia's Murray-Darling river system.

Australia is a unique part of the Earth, a land renown for its "droughts and flooding rains". The one thing that Australia lacks is rivers, the Murray-Darling being the only significant river system east of the Great Dividing Range.

The Darling River originates in southern Queensland and much of eastern New South Wales. Various tributaries flow towards central New South Wales and join in the vicinity of Bourke, forming the Darling.

The "mighty" Murray River is the border between the states of New South Wales and Victoria. It begins its life in the highlands of northern Victoria and southern New South Wales; the area of Australia's famous Snowy Mountains and the Snowy River as depicted in the poem by A.B. (Banjo) Paterson, "The Man From Snowy River". The Murray is also fed from the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers, in southern New South Wales, joining near Balranald.

The Darling River joins with the Murray near Wentworth, near the borders of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The Murray River then flows west into South Australia, before turning south at the small town Morgan to flow out into the Southern Ocean near Goolwa.

The waters from the Murray-Darling initially supplied water for many native Aboriginal tribes, prior to the country being settled by Europeans in the 18th Century. Since that time, the uses have magnified many times and have been used for crop and fruit irrigation plus water for livestock into what is often described as Australia's food bowl. Water has also been piped from the river system to provide drinking water for some of Australia's population. In addition to being the water supply of the many country towns along the river system, it has been piped many hundreds of kilometres to add to the water supply of many more towns. These include the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia, with a population well in excess of one million residents.

In recent years, the use of the waters from the Murray-Darling has become excessive, with use now outweighing the available water. These uses include the establishment of cotton growing in a number of country areas, such as Cuddy Station in Western Queensland. This overuse of water, together with central and southern Australia experiencing

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