Murray-Darling rainfall

So now I take it that the Murray Darling Basin only exists in 2 states - NSW & VIC. Guess is was bound to happen with the continuing years of drought.

Hello Rod,
Thanks for alerting members to the plight of the folk in the southern part of the Murray Darling catchment. We are really in the poo !

I live in Kerang in the northwest of Victoria and not far from the Murray River. I'm consider myself lucky to have access to water from the river as well as the town supply. I have been on Stage 3 water restirctions for some time. Interestingly, my friends in Brisbane have been suffering much harsher restrictions than me.

Kerang has received 11.0 mm of rain this year and the last decent fall (19mm) was on 18th December, 2008. I have watched with great interest the rain events in Qld and NSW, hoping that some would filter down the east coast to western Victoria, as it occasionally does. I watch every band of cloud that comes our way from the west in the hope of some rain.

Our main water storages are very low: Hume Weir 3.6% and Eildon Reservoir 14%. I never imagined that these mighty storages would ever fall to these levels.

As a consequence of the low rainfall over several years and extensive dry periods each year, much of the once productive irrigation area has been laid to waste. There are dead trees everywhere you look, many farm houses are now vacant, the local dairy herds are surviving on hay often bought on credit, livestock numbers have been seriously depleted.

For the soon-to-close season, the local water authority - Goulburn Murray Water - has been able to allocate 35% of water entitlement to irrigators. The water remaining in storage is fully reserved for domestic customers (town supplies) and farmers who are able to reserve unused water for the start of the next irrigation season (known as carryover).

The quality of the water in the Murray has fallen dramatically in the past fortnight as an extensive algal bloom has developed from Yarrawonga to Tooleybuc due to above-average autumn temperatures. This is a temporary nuisance to us - it is already beginning to disperse. It is just another problem caused by the low flow in the Murray River. A much bigger one is that our river redgum forests have not been flooded for many years !

I'm about to receive some Rudd Dollars. How stimulating ! I would much rather our PM have spent the stimulus money on a project to direct - and pipe where necessary - water from Northern Australia to our food bowls. If we can build a mighty Snowy Hydro Scheme, we can surely collect, store and redirect water which might otherwise be lost to seepage and evaporation or flow out to sea.

Send rain !
Netnut

G`day Rod,
A mate of mine in northern Vic moved off the dairy farm a couple of years ago because he could no longer afford to hand feed the herd, he was buying in hay and feeding out 8 round bales each day @ $120.00 per bale. It takes a bit of the folding stuff to do that year after year for 10 years or more.

And for those that are debating the feasibility of diverting water from the north to the rivers flowing southward.

PLEASE go to and READ
http://www.johnston-independent.com/bradfield_scheme.html

I reckon we ( us Australians ) can do just about anything, we only need the will to do it.

Just my 20 cents worth,

Scrubby

Stop Press. Today it is hitting the media in Adelaide. At the flow rates we have had over the last three years, and which show no sign of changing, Adelaide will be out of drinkable water within about 12 months. The pollies are trying to reassure us that this will only happen if we don't get rain. And of course we aren't This is going to get just as ugly as the greens always said it would.