Urgent: Join Our Submission for the Murray Darling

The last time I wrote to you here was just before leading a group on a canoe journey along the Murray / Dungala River (Australia’s longest). What a group it was. And what a River.

But more on that later (on next week’s pod; though here’s a first installment from writer and group member, Sally Gillespie). I’ve just got back home after six more weeks on the road (well, river and road), culminating last week in the extravaganza of Grounded Festival. More on that later too. We’re in need of catching breath. But what I have to share with you today can’t wait.

It’s an invitation. A really important one. As our journey coincided with the first once-in-a-decade Murray Darling Basin Plan Review, and specifically the public comment period. Our schedule meant I couldn’t get to this post till now, with just 2 days left in said period. But here we are. And I come with a gift.

My co-convenor on that River journey was Dr Katie Ross, a highly respected researcher and communicator on water, land and climate. Katie keynoted on the topic ahead of our journey at the Australian Water Association conference (that extraordinary keynote will also feature on the pod in May), and WA Water Alliance event; and after the River, too, at Grounded.

Katie’s great mate is prominent water researcher and advocate, Chair of the esteemed Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust, and also a participant on our River journey, Professor Emerita Cynthia Mitchell AO. Together, Katie and Cynthia have pulled together a succinct power-pack of a one-page submission, with an invitation for us all to sign on.

Of course, submit something individually too if you like (here’s one guide). But if you’re short on time, and maybe even knowledge, back in this one.

That’s the title of the submission. Its authors say it “synthesises what we know about regenerating landcapes and re-membering local water cycles.”

Its starting premise is this:

A future where plentiful water exists for farmers, wetlands, communities, creeks, industry and rivers is possible by working with the flows of water in the river, and flows of water in the land and sky.

As Katie put it to me when bringing it together, what we’re submitting to the Basin Authority “would make their job so much easier.”

Between us, it’s certainly true to say we’ve seen these possibilities realised time and again, around Australia and beyond. I’ve covered a lot of it through nearly 10 years on The RegenNarration podcast, and Grounded Festival showcased plenty of it last week. And just as well, because we sure need more of it, more than ever.

Just ahead of our River journey came this ABC Report - Lower River Murray now ‘critically endangered’. Sadly, it is one of many such reports from across the one million square kilometre Murray Darling Basin. But it doesn’t have to be this way. And what happens next with the Basin Plan, will apply for the next decade. So right now is a big opportunity.

The Google form Katie and Cynthia have pulled together can be found here. It includes the one page submission, and all the questions required by the MDBA in the submission process. Submissions are due by 5pm AEST Friday 1 May.

So your invitation is to sign on now (allowing time for the authors to submit it with your name included). And share this widely for others to do the same. And/or, of course, to submit their own.

The River is incredibly beautiful. Its communities are incredibly resilient. But both are suffering. And both underpin the health of Australia as a continent, in so many ways.

It was an honour to paddle through this Country and share in some of its stories. We learned and felt just how much the story of the Basin needs to change. And how it can.

We continue to be given so much by this Country, even in an emaciated state. Imagine what a healthy Basin would be able to give. And what we might give in turn.

PS. Dust this old tune off for the Murray / Dungala as you sign.