PUZZLE ANSWERS

What is the challenge?The Murray-Darling Basin is the area of land that makes up the catchment of the Murray River, the Darling River, and all the small rivers and creeks that flow into them. The Basin is Australia’s most important agricultural region, producing one third of Australia’s food supply, and is home to about two million people. Amazingly, it also contains some of the world’s most precious and important ecosystems.

Unfortunately, the Basin faces some challenges if the area is to survive and prosper. The water in the Basin’s rivers is becoming spoiled, wetlands are drying up, native fish are struggling to survive and many areas of land are becoming too salty for plants to grow.

Some of the major challenges facing the Murray-Darling Basin are:

To improve the quality of the water.• To discover ways of sharing the water for the long term.• To keep the river systems healthy.• To manage the land in a way that provides jobs for the community, while at the same time taking • care of the environment.

The Basin is so important for Australia that if the region is allowed to continue to deteriorate it will affect every Australian, whether they live in the country or the city.

Read on to find out more about the issues concerning people, water quality, water sharing, healthy river ecosystems and catchment management that need to be resolved in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Taking up the challengeCARING FOR THE MURRAY RIVER - AN ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGE

Did you know...

The Murray-Darling Basin is • very large. It covers 1,061,469 square kilometres, stretching through Qld, NSW, the ACT, Vic, and SA - about 14% (or one seventh) of Australia’s total area!

The three longest rivers in Australia all • run through the Murray-Darling Basin. These are the Darling River (2740km long), the Murray River (2530km long) and the Murrumbidgee River (1690km long).

75% of all of the water used to irrigate • crops grown in Australia comes from the rivers that flow through the Basin.

Just over 41% of all the crops grown • commercially in Australia are grown in the Basin, making it our most important agricultural region.

The Basin provides drinking water for over • three million people, and more than one third of these people live outside the area.

Around 30,000 wetlands can be found in • the Basin, some of which are important breeding grounds for birds from as far away as Japan and China!

Around 45 native fish species live in the • Basin’s rivers.

The Basin has at least 35 endangered • species of birds and 16 species of endangered mammals. Unfortunately, 20 species of mammals have already become extinct.

Ask Mum, Dad or your carer if you can log on to the internet and visit the Murray-Darling Basin Commission ‘Basin Kids’ website. It’s just for kids!

Visit www.mdbc.gov.au and follow the link.

On the ‘Basin Kids’ website you will find an easy-to-use encyclopaedia for your next school assignment, along with more fun games and activities.

Challenge yourselfFind the words hidden amongst the letters. Then, beginning at the top left hand corner and moving across, place the remaining letters, in order, in the spaces below to complete the sentence and reveal a hidden message.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, _ _ _ _ _ _ _

. . . so people, plants and animals can all thrive and grow.

For more information on Basin Kids, visit the Murray-Darling Basin Commission website: www.mdbc.gov.au or call (02) 6279 0100 during business hours.

“Taking up the challenge”Published April 2008Front cover image credits:John Baker & Irene Dowdy

Hold onto this map, it is handy for school projects!

Can you find the area where you live?

MURRAY RIVER

Basin Kids website

DOGINIWIDON _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _1. NERVOM _ _ _ _ _ _2. CRAWKIW _ _ _ _ _ _ _3. ERUBOK _ _ _ _ _ _4. BROANABARCONA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _5. SHARBUTT _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _6. RASHMOH _ _ _ _ _ _ _7. PHOTARPENS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _8. RIMALUD _ _ _ _ _ _ _9. KRARNEM _ _ _ _ _ _ _10. NUMMAN _ _ _ _ _ _11. WOOLAG _ _ _ _ _ _12.

Murray-Darling Basin ScrambleUnscramble the letters to find the names of some Basin cities and towns.(The answers can be found on the Murray-Darling Basin map.)

A W H E E E G D I B M U R R U M

S E W R E L E A N I M A L S U A

E T E A A P R N R E E D S R F N

I L R C T O L N J N T T R D L A

T A O E L E H O V O S A E A O G

I N T F E P R I Y R Y F V R W E

N D S I V E R T L R S I E L H M

U S E E C O T A E A O S R I T E

M O R S N L A T T Y C H O N L N

M L S M I P T E A R E H F G A T

O A E O L T I G G E F I L T E F

C N S A E M B E I V I S U A H A

T D N V I T A V R I A R L Y N U

O T O G E T H E R R A U K N O N

S W N I S A B A I L A R T S U A

The Basin word search

ANIMALSAUSTRALIABASINCARECOMMUNITIESDARLINGECOSYSTEM

ENJOYENVIRONMENTFAUNAFISHFLORAFLOWFOREVER

HABITATHEALTHIRRIGATELACHLANLANDLIFEMANAGEMENT

MURRAYMURRUMBIDGEENATURALPEOPLEPLANTSREEDSRESTORE

RIVERSOILTOGETHERTREEVEGETATIONWATERWETLANDS

Murray-Darling Basin Scramble1. GOONDIWINDI 7. HORSHAM2. MORVEN 8. SHEPPARTON3. WARWICK 9. MILDURA4. BOURKE 10. RENMARK5. COONABARABRAN 11. MANNUM6. BATHURST 12. GOOLWA

The Basin word searchA healthy river ecosystem is vital, you know ... so people, plants and animals can all thrive and grow.

The Murray-Darling Basin Map

Taking up the challenge

The catchment challengeWho are the people of the Murray-Darling Basin?

People who live in rural towns and cities• Farmers• Indigenous people• Members of Landcare groups• People who own and work in businesses and • industriesMums, Dads, carers and children•

All those who live and work in the Basin must continue to work together to take care of our environment, so that future generations can continue to live and work in the Basin. The long-term survival of the Basin will depend on our ability to use its natural resources in a sustainable way.

To achieve sustainability, some people may need to learn more about the needs of a healthy working river, and then change the way they use the resources of the Basin. It is a huge job to ensure that people are able to earn a living from using the resources of the Basin, while at the same time protecting the habitat of the native birds, animals and fish that also live in the Basin.

Because the people who live in the Basin have different needs and values everyone must work together to help find solutions to the environmental challenges that affect it. Each group of individuals needs to let the others know about the problems and issues that affect them. This way everyone will be happy with any actions that are taken.

People will need to value what the Basin brings into their lives so that sustainability into the future becomes a shared goal for everyone. The Murray-Darling Basin Commission is working hard to help community groups achieve this.

The people challenge

Water is the ‘lifeblood’ of all living things, and it is also the ‘lifeblood’ of the Basin. People who live and work in the Basin rely on its water to drink, to wash with, to irrigate their crops, and to use in their factories. Plants and animals in the Basin also rely on the water as part of a healthy ecosystem in which they live, feed and breed. Over the years the quality of the Basin’s water has been degraded. As a result, it’s rivers may not be able to continue supplying the water that the people, plants and animals need to survive.

Algal BloomsWhen nutrients from fertilisers and drainage flow into the river, it encourages the naturally-occurring algae to grow faster than usual. Combined with the effects of slow-moving water from reduced river flows, algal blooms form. This can be a big problem because some types of blue-green algae are poisonous to humans, animals and fish. The challenge for Basin managers is to try to stop these blooms from occurring.

The water quality challenge Salt

With salinity levels rising in the rivers, as well as on land, salt is one of the biggest challenges for the Basin. Salts that naturally occur deep in the soil are being dissolved by rising groundwater and then carried into the rivers, or brought to the soil surface. Most native plants and crops cannot grow if the soil gets too salty. If salt levels in the rivers become too high, plants and fish that live in the water can die. Salt can also kill crops if farmers irrigate using salty water from the rivers.

The problem is that huge amounts of native vegetation have been removed from the Basin over the past hundred years or so, without being replaced. Shallow-rooted plants, such as many food crops, do not use as much water as trees and native vegetation. The extra water then soaks into the ground, causing the water table to rise. When more trees are planted they use the excess water, the water table falls and the land may be able to recover. Large planting programs are now underway, and many school children are involved in them.

At the moment, there is not enough water in the Basin to supply everyone’s wants and needs. The major water sharing challenge is to come up with a fair system in which everyone working and living in the Basin has most of the water they need, while at the same time, ensuring that the ecosystem has enough fresh clean water to thrive. This is a difficult challenge. However, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission is determined to help the community strike the correct balance.

The health of the river and its tributaries will not be sustained if the community keeps taking large amounts of water out of the river system to irrigate crops. There is now a limit placed on how much water can be removed from the rivers, and members of the community are learning to balance their water needs with those of a healthy and productive environment.

Fifty years ago, people were only concerned about how to store water from the Basin’s rivers, and how to control their flow. The technologies they developed have made possible Australia’s multi-billion dollar irrigation industry, which produces one third of Australia’s food. Unfortunately it has also had a devastating effect on both water quality and on the amount of water that flows naturally in the river system. When the natural flows of the river were changed, plants, fish and animals that had been happily living there began to suffer.

Around 45 native fish species live within the Murray-Darling Basin river system, but native fish populations are only 10% of what they were before European settlement in Australia. Changes in the flow of the river, construction of dams and weirs, a decline in water quality, disappearing habitats, over fishing, and the introduction of exotic fish such as carp, as well as of various diseases, have made it extremely difficult for many of the native species to survive.

However, there is a major project under way to send more water flowing through the Basin’s rivers so that the environment benefits. This should help birds and fish to breed again and may give native vegetation the opportunity to regenerate.

The Murray-Darling Basin Commission is working hard to see that the health of the Basin’s ecosystems does not continue to decline.

Everyone lives in a catchment area, and a healthy catchment is an essential part of a healthy river. Managing the challenges in the Basin is not just about managing rivers. It is also about managing the lands that make up the catchments of those rivers to ensure that the system is in balance.

No matter where you live in Australia, the rain that falls on you will eventually drain into a river, after plants have used the water they need and the ground has soaked up as much as it can. Problems such as salinity and erosion on the land will cause salt and soil to be washed down through the catchment and into the rivers, degrading river health.

So, another very important challenge for the people of the Basin is to work towards healthy ecosystems on the land, as well as in and near the rivers.

The water sharing challenge

The healty river ecosystem challenge The Murray-Darling Basin Commission is

committed to assisting communities to work together to ensure the medium and long-term future of the Basin. The Commission has been running a number of exciting education projects for students that encourage them and their teachers to appreciate the many different facets of the Basin. One of these projects, which has been running for many years, is called Special Forever.

Special Forever asks primary school students what is special about the environment in which they live. They answer this question by writing a story or a poem, or drawing a picture. At the last count, more than 400 schools (about 25% of the total number located in the Basin) and 25,000 children were registered for the project.

Since the Special Forever program began in 1993, students have felt a sense of belonging and increased pride in their environment, the Murray-Darling Basin. There has been greater discussion of the Basin in schools and families, and a greater awareness among students and teachers about the uses of the land, the cultural heritage and the protection of the spectacular flora and fauna of the Basin.

For more information contact the Murray-Darling Basin Commission by calling (02) 6279 0100 or the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia on (02) 9565 1277.

Students taking up the challenge

The great news is that governments and communities throughout the Basin are working together, with the common goal of maintaining this precious environment while, at the same time, continuing to grow and develop Basin communities.

The sustainable use of the Basin is being managed by the Commonwealth Government, five state and territory governments, and more than 200 local governments. They are working together with people from cities and rural communities, farmers, Indigenous people, Landcare groups and many other community organisations who care about the Basin.

What can you and your family, school and local community do to help?

Who is taking up the challenge?

Students from Coomealla High School visit Buronga Salt Interception Scheme. Photo: Brayden Dykes

Irrigated farmland near Mildura in Victoria.

Photo: Brayden Dykes

The iconic Murray Cod. Photo: Gunther Schmida

Wheat field during harvest

Photo: Arthur Mostead

Corowa Public school students with MDBC CE Wendy Craik Photo: Sandra Volk

Recreation on the Murray River Photo: Arthur Mostead

Community native tree planting Photo: Shane Reid