Free-flowing estuary vital to healthy river

This and many other studies explain that the Murray River estuary was destroyed by the barrages and as a consequence the Lower Lakes region continues to decline in health.

Just as wetlands need fresh water, rivers need estuaries. The problems of the Murray are exacerbated by the five barrages that separate salt water close to the river mouth from fresh water in Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert.

Fresh water needs to come down the river to trigger spawning of fish and flow out the Murray Mouth to take nutrients to creatures such as the Goolwa cockle but salt water is also required for the estuarine ecology. In summary, the health of the Murray River and its estuary is dependent on more than the amount of water coming downstream.

Restoring the Murray River estuary would affect Dodd and a few other farmers who started farming at the Lower Lakes after the barrages were put in place.

These issues need to be discussed; yet in all the arguing about the new plan for the Murray-Darling Basin there is no discussion about the Murray River estuary or the barrages.

Estuaries are healthiest when fresh water from rivers flows into and mixes with salt water from the ocean, creating a transition zone rich in ecology with nutrients from the land and also from the ocean.