Coorong wetlands

It is a tragedy that the Coorong wetlands have become so degraded they are almost beyond the point of recovery. The tragedy is compounded by the negligence of governments that could, and should, have seen this coming. State governments' stubbornness on buying back water allocations from farmers is destructive. How many more precious ecosystems and bird habitats must die before action is taken?

There are complex processes underlying the changes being observed in the Murray-Darling basin, but the basic causes are straightforward. There are too many farms using too much water, and often in an extraordinarily unsustainable way. The landscape simply cannot support this level of agricultural activity. When European farmers first saw Australia's wide open spaces, they assumed these lands had the same high levels of soil fertility and could grow the same types of crops as in Europe. To overcome the lack of water, the Snowy River was diverted into the Murray, causing immense shock and change to the ecosystems of both rivers.

Governments' inability to actually implement changes that will stop the Murray River degrading further continues this pattern, as if they think that one day more water will simply appear out of nowhere. Environmental determinism is never sustainable in the long-run. We need to respect the constraints of nature and farm our land more sustainably. That means fewer farms and lower water entitlements in the Murray-Darling basin.