https://shawjonathan.com/2020/06/30/margaret-simonss-cry-me-a-river/ ( )

Right now, you could be forgiven for thinking that nothing else is happening in the world today, except for COVID_19. And I bet there's more than one politician who's hoping that the pandemic means this Quarterly Essay doesn't get the attention it deserves.

That's not going to happen if I can do anything about it!

First, a quick briefing for overseas readers.

(And in case you're wondering why you should care, this issue involves the threats to numerous endangered species of international importance, not to mention Australia's food bowl, which exports to the world).

The Murray–Darling basin is a large geographical area in the interior of southeastern Australia. Its name is derived from its two major rivers, the Murray River and the Darling River. The basin, which drains around one-seventh of the Australian land mass, is one of the most significant agricultural areas in Australia. It spans most of the states of New South Wales and Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, and parts of the states of Queensland (lower third) and South Australia (southeastern corner). The basin is 3,375 kilometres (2,097 mi) in length, with the Murray River being 2,508 km (1,558 mi) long.

Most of the 1,061,469 km2 (409,835 sq mi) basin is flat, low-lying and far inland, and receives little direct rainfall. The many rivers it contains tend to be long and slow-flowing, and carry a volume of water that is large only by Australian standards. (Wikipedia, lightly edited to remove links and formatting, viewed 22/4/20).

Ok, got that? It's a very large part of Australia, and it covers four states and a territory which means managing it involves six governments by the time you include the federal government. And manage it we must because we cannot go on as we are. (As Dorothea Mackellar's poem says) Australia is a land of drought and flooding rains. (And she wrote that in about 1904, before Climate Change was even thought of.) It's a bit like the situation with the Rhine in Europe, except that when we're in drought there's not enough water in the Basin to please everybody. Irrigators in Qld, NSW and Victoria (i,e. Australia's food bowl) don't have enough water for their crops; wetlands protected under the Ramsar Convention of Wetlands of International Importance dry up; tens of thousands of fish die; and the river silts up in South Australia and has to be dredged 24/7 to enable the supply of fresh sea-water into the Coorong National Park, which would be catastrophic for the bird life there. The social costs should give anyone pause for thought.

As you know if you've read my reviews of her books, Margaret Simons is one of Australia's best journalists, and this essay is the best, most comprehensive explanation I've read of the troubled efforts to manage these competing interests: agriculture, business, environment, recreation and the interests of the First Nations on whose land these issues arise.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/04/23/cry-me-a-river-by-margaret-simons-quarterly-... ( )