River Murray Management
Ecology - Commerce - Leisure
The responsiblity for the management of the Murray-Darling
Basin lies with the Murray-Darling
Basin Commission. The Murray-Darling Basin Agreement was
initially signed by the governments of the Commonwealth,
New South
Wales, Victoria,
and South Australia
in 1987, and revised in 1992. Queensland became a signatory
in 1996, with the Australian Capital Territory being added
in 1998. There are thus six formal partner governments in
the Agreement, with many departments and agencies
involved. This body was established to manage the river's
assets on behalf of the states and territories who are members.
The size of the Murray-Darling
Basin is enormous, and managing that area with multiple
stakeholders having input and different objectives is a complicated
and difficult task. Farming needs water for crops and agriculture,
which feeds our country. Australia's irrigation areas produce
28 per cent of the nation's fresh fruit and produce from less
than one per cent of the agricultural land (Source).
Our cities need to manage and understand
water from the Murray-Darling Basin is not in unlimited supply
and resource with the urgent need to implement better local
(beginning
at home) conservation methods. Tourism also has a huge
impact on the Murray, therefore all tourism bodies need to
consider their role because without a healthy river and river
system tourism and regional towns will feel the impact.
Environmentally we need to understand that
the entire ecological system relies on a good quality flow
from the rivers down to the Coorong and Murray mouth. All
demands on the Murray and other rivers in the basin need to
better appreciated by the entire country especially during
droughts. On this site you'll find a variety of bodies all
involved in the mangement of the Murray-Darling Basin and
the River Murray. These bodies include:
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