Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin is the nation’s food bowl — a huge river system that spans almost one-sixth of the country. 186 million square kilometres accommodating 40% of the country’s agriculture productions and supplies providing access to more than 3 million people for drinking water. However the Basin is in ecological crisis. crisis. In the last 40 years, waterbird populations have been reduced by over 70 percent. Native fish Many of the former range of these species within rivers has been lost. Nevertheless, more than 10 years of. Today, the rivers get far less water than they need to survive because the Basin Plan is still being reformed. This isn’t a problem that lies far in the future. This is going on today, for the most part behind the scenes.

  1. Basin water storage has swung from crisis to flood — and back again

    Total water in storage across the Murray–Darling Basin as a percentage of capacity, 2015–2024

Source: Bureau of Meteorology, National Water Account 2023 (mdbwip.bom.gov.au); Murray–Darling Basin Authority, Current Basin Water Storage Reports 2021-2024. Hover: storage volume (Gl).

As the result of drought event after drought, by 2019, the total storage of the Basin was reduced to 22% of its capacity – its lowest level in decades. It returned to a near-record state in 2022 on the heels of high percentages in the 2022 floods. But by However, storage dropped back to 74% in late 2024, amid continued swings in the weather. These episodic climate oscillations (drought/flood) are occurring more frequently and resulting in long-term The management of rivers increasingly challenging and unpredictable.

  1. Irrigation dominates water use — the environment gets far less

    Annual water allocation by use type across the Murray–Darling Basin, 2019–2023 (gigalitres)

Source: BOM: Bureau of Meteorology, National Water Account 2023, Murray–Darling Basin (mdbwip.bom.gov.au); ACCC: Murray–Darling Basin Rural Water Monitoring Report 2022–23 (accc.gov.au); MDBA: Basin Plan Annual Report 2023–24. Hover for volumes that are precise.

A total of 12,668 GL of surface water was allocated in the Basin in 2022–23. Of this, About 70% was used for irrigation and ag. Environmental flows — the water that is retained In the rivers used for ecosystem support, water received much less – even during flood years. plentiful. 2,750 GL per year target for environmental flows in the 2012 Basin Plan. Despite more than a decade having gone by, that goal has yet to be met.

  1. Some native fish now survive in less than 10% of their historic habitat

    Percentage of historic river kilometres still occupied by key Murray–Darling Basin fish species

Source: Robinson W., Koehn J. and Lintermans M. (2024). Common riverine fish species from Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin (common riverine fishes) and Murray–Darling Basin Authority, Threatened Fish Species in the Murray–Darling Basin (2023).

A first-of-its-kind peer-reviewed study of fish populations throughout the Basin in 2024 showed that: Today, silver perch, southern pygmy perch, and freshwater catfish are limited to <10% of the the rivers they used to live along, river-kms. Even what were once thought to be common species, like Golden perch have been extirpated from almost 33% of their historical distribution. In March 2023, a A major fish kill (of millions of fish) was documented in the Darling-Baaka River. at Menindee, the biggest ever recorded.

  1. Waterbird populations have collapsed by more than 70% since 1983

    Waterbird population index by group (1983 = 100), Murray–Darling Basin 1983–2023

Source: State of the environment 2024: NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, Rivers and Water: ScienceDaily 2017: the Riverbank Wetlands Study at the University of New South Wales found that, from 1983 to 2014, wetlands (32-year study) experienced a 72% decline; DCCEEW Meeting Environmental Needs in the Murray–Darling Basin (2024).

One famous study over 32 years of UNSW research uncovered a 72% decline in waterbird numbers from 1983 to 2014 — a greater than half reduction in numbers of most of the surveyed waterbird species. The 2022 Transitory increase in numbers following flooding, when breeding opportunities increased and wetlands flooded. However, by 2023, there had been a decrease in numbers. The NSW State of the Environment 2024 report reported. That effects of the longterm decline are still present, caused by reduction of water flow, loss of habitat and The frequency of floods, as well as the amount of water, is becoming irregular.

  1. A decade of reform — and the rivers still need 1,093 gigalitres more

    Cumulative environmental water recovered vs Basin Plan targets, 2012–2023 (GL/year)

Source: With reference to Murray–Darling Basin Authority, Progress on Water Recovery — 2,107.4 GL/yr recovered as at 30 June 2023 (MDBA, 2023); Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 (Cth) — increased water recovery target of 3,200 GL/yr; MDBA, Basin Plan Annual Report 2023–24.

So the Murray–Darling Basin Plan stipulated that the water flow be restored at a rate of 2,750 GL per year by 2012. environment. Cumulative recoveries are limited to only 2,107 GL/yr as of June 2023, missing out 643 GL/yr. Following over 10 Years of hard work. The target was further increased in the 2023 Restoring Our Rivers Act. This figure has increased from 2,600 GL/yr, which indicates that the gap actually widened by more than 500 GL/yr to 3,200 GL/yr. Without meaningful The Basin’s rivers, wetlands, fish and birds will continue to benefit from these different outcomes such as water recovery acceleration. decline — something which goes underground and away from most Australians but which never comes back for everyone.

References

Bureau of Meteorology. (2023). Murray–Darling Basin: National Water Account 2023. Australian Government. https://mdbwip.bom.gov.au

Murray–Darling Basin Authority. (2024). Basin Plan annual report 2023–24. Australian Government. https://www.mdba.gov.au/publications-and-data/publications/basin-plan-annual-report

Murray–Darling Basin Authority. (2023). Threatened fish species found in the Murray–Darling Basin. Australian Government. https://www.mdba.gov.au/news-and-events/newsroom/threatened-fish-species-found-murray-darling-basin

Murray–Darling Basin Authority. (2023). Progress on water recovery. Australian Government. https://www.mdba.gov.au/climate-and-river-health/water-environment/water-recovery/progress-water-recovery

Robinson, W., Koehn, J., & Lintermans, M. (2024). Contemporary trends in the spatial extent of common riverine fish species in Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin. Fishes, 9(6), 221. https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes9060221

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (2024). Murray–Darling Basin rural water monitoring report 2022–23. Australian Government. https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/accc-water-monitoring-report-2022-23.pdf

NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water. (2024). NSW State of the Environment 2024: Rivers and wetlands. https://www.soe.epa.nsw.gov.au/all-themes/waters/rivers-and-wetlands-2024

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. (2024). Meeting environmental needs in the Murray–Darling Basin. Australian Government. https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/environmental-needs

University of New South Wales. (2017, June 5). First long-term study of Murray-Darling Basin wetlands reveals severe impact of dams. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170605101006.htm

Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Act 2023 (Cth). https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2023A00129

Acknowledgements

Generative AI (Claude, Anthropic) was used to assist with R code structure and formatting. All data values, source verification, and narrative decisions were confirmed by the author against primary sources listed in the references above. All data sources are dated 2021 or later.