Irrigated agriculture is the foundation of the social and economic wellbeing of towns, business and rural communities in this region. but I ‘d been taken back by the intensity of the irrigated agriculture with their huge irrigation channels and weirs.
The main concern was about extracting ever more water from the river not less, not with the health of the river or its wetlands; even though much of the Basin’s extensive wetlands had not been receiving the floodwaters required to keep them healthy. The floodwaters were being stopped by towns and private farms and it raises the question: Is the Basin Plan capable of restoring the river in the long term?
It was relaxing in the sanctuary for the brief time that I was there.
I didn’t bother to wander around Pantal Island to the bridge at Fish Point as I couldn’t see any public access to the River Murray on the map. This photo session was an interlude as my time in Victoria had been planned to explore the Mallee country south of Swan Hill.
Thankfully the 2022-23 flood will ameliorate for a time the environmental and social impacts of a declining Basin bu the long term trends are declining ecological health as the corporate farmers continue to buy out the family farms, the walnut and almond industries continue to expand, the water market is dominated by water barons, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) is a regulator has been captured by the irrigation industry, and the overall ethos is still development at all costs.
Nourishing Terrains 
Leave a comment