REGULATING THE MURRAY

A major responsibility of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission is to control flows in the Murray in order to efficiently deliver water to each of the three States sharing the River – New South Wales,  Victoria and South Australia. Four major storages (Lake Dartmouth, Hume Reservoir,  Menindee Lakes and Lake Victoria), sixteen weirs and five barrages are involved in the regulation of the Murray.

The Commission ensures that a reliable supply  of water is available for irrigation, stock, domestic, and industrial purposes  in the Murray Valley. Water is also piped from the lower Murray to supply  industries and one and a quarter million people living outside the Murray-Darling Basin, in South Australia. The development of irrigation and the provision of town and industrial water supplies is carried out by State organizations.

The New South Wales Department of Water Resources, the Rural Water Corporation of Victoria and the Engineering and Water Supply Department of South Australia work closely with the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. These three Authorities operate and maintain the storages and weirs of the River Murray System for the Commission.

The Murray-Darling Basin Commission also operates  13 navigation locks on the River Murray weir and two locks on the barrages  at the Murray Mouth. The Murray is permanently navigable for almost 1,000 kilometres from the Murray Mouth near Goolwa to above Mildura. Locks greatly assist recreation and tourism on the lower Murray. They are used by far more boats today than operated on the river at the height of the navigation era last century.

NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT STRATEGY (NRMS)

The Strategy provides funding and a structure  for the States in the Basin to work together, along with the Commonwealth,  to establish priorities and manage the natural resources of the region as  a whole. It also involves community groups working with government departments  to better manage the resources of their local areas.

The aims of the NRMS are to:

Prevent further degradation of natural resources;

• Restore degraded resources, where appropriate;
• Promote sustainable user practices;
• Ensure appropriate resource use planning and management;
• Ensure a long term viable economic future for Basin dependents;
• Minimize adverse effects of resource use;
• Ensure self-maintaining populations of native species;
• Preserve cultural heritage; and
• Conserve recreation values.