Floods and new life along the Murray River.

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Visiting some of the flooded areas along the Murray River this week has reminded me that Nature will do what Nature will do, regardless.

We often interpret things from a human perspective and in terms of damage done to the things that we have built. That is our default perspective.

But think another way. A flood brings life to the Murray. It flushes out the old and stagnant, it floods billabongs with life giving the teeming millions within access to the main river.

Birds fly with it, feasting. It is the trigger for a whole new breeding cycle for some both above and below the water.
Walking to the river’s edge shows me that life abounds in every flooded piece. Every square metre of flooded roadside themes with life. - Boatmen, tadpoles, fish of all sizes, things with flippers, things with tails, worms mosquitoes, birds, people, insects and, unseen hordes of microbes.



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We see myriads of Dragonflies darting through the air, feasting. They would have normally finished breeding in September, with their larvae living below the surface of the river, feasting - they are voracious hunters. The humidity and warmth of the last season has extended their aerial ballet for us.

The Murray has flooded for millennia. Creation stories come from it to explain the relationships between human, animal and river, showing that none are separate. It is a river of extremes though. Early European explorers found the river to be no more than a series of connected ponds.

I remember my our first trip to the Murray, back in 1971, having only recently come to live in SA from the migrant hostels in Cabramatta. Dad drove us and we stopped at Walker’s Flat and fished from what seemed to be an extremely narrow road. Later, we found that the river was in flood and we were fishing in someone’s yard!

Until the Paddle Steamers began their journeys along the Murray, carrying all kinds of people and goods, huge, fallen trees littered its bed. These were home to myriads of fish and other creatures. They were safe breeding grounds for fish like the Murray Cod.

The logs got in the way of the steamers though and were removed to allow them unhindered access. Fish populations started to decline and the whole ecology of the Murray started to wither. Many decades later, logs and trees were placed back into the river to remedy things and they are there now.

The locks were put in many years ago to ensure that there was always enough water for boats but until they were modified, blocked the path of the lives of river creatures.



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The river used to flow freely, all the way to the Coorong where it met the sea in a huge, living filter system of creatures that provided home, shelter and rest for millions of birds and animals. Many species of birds use the Coorong as a haven during their migrations. I’ve sat there in the evenings and watched tens of thousands of birds come in to feed and rest. Flock after flock, arriving for hours from sundown until dark.

The billabongs that line the main river, once thought to be worthless, stagnant lakes have been found to be the home and breeding grounds for many species of fish and birds. When the river drops, they are isolated in the billabong and live in relative safety. The inrush of fresh water that a flood brings is the trigger for a whole new phase of life in the river itself until it drops again to normal levels.

The river used to run much clearer. The introduction of European Carp has been cited as the main reason for this, though there are other contributing factors. These pests grub along the bottom of the river, disturbing mud and eating what would be the prey of local fish. It’s another man made disaster that the river is paying for.

In South Australia, our stretch of the river pays heavily for any kind of negative effect that hits it upstream. We are particularly vulnerable for narrow minded water management policies enacted in the states upstream. The effects of things like water allocation, recreation, pesticide use and other agricultural activities all flow downstream to us.

The Murray connects life in a myriad of spheres, its existence is timelessness and floods are just a part of it all. We are latecomers but our influence is as strong as that of anything else throughout the river’s life. Floods remind us of this.



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