For the Barkandji people, the crisis on the Barwon-Darling represents the biggest threat to their continued survival on country since the sheep invaded.
Hundreds of thousands of fish have died in low-oxygen water. Here’s what actually happened to the oxygen, and why we might see more deaths in the coming weeks.
An aerial photo of a 2009 algae bloom in the Murray Darling Basin.
MINISTER PHIL COSTA'S OFFICE/AAP
The new Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council aims to overcome a management problem faced by many traditional owners: the fact that major rivers flow through lands home to many different groups and languages.
The more the market is willing to pay, the harder it is to regulate water use.
Shutterstock.com
Residents of a small Victorian town realised that delicious water can be a curse as well as a blessing, when they lost a legal battle to stop a local farmer shipping groundwater to a nearby bottling plant.
An image from 1886 showing a group of Indigenous Australians posed around the lower Murray River in flood.
national_library_of_australia_commons/flickr
As the health of the Murray Darling Basin is in decline, fish ear bones recovered from ancient Aboriginal camp sites can provide vital data about river health in the past.
Traditional owners on the Wimmera River, western Victoria, conducting Aboriginal waterways assessment.
MLDRIN
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been politically fraught and mired in scandal. But environmental monitoring suggests that the health of the rivers is indeed improving – even if it will take decades.
Jay Weatherill was seen as the better performer during the campaign when compared with Steven Marshall.
Morgan Sette/AAP
A dozen leading researchers have issued an urgent call to action for the Murray-Darling Basin, arguing that the billions spent on water-efficient irrigation have done little for the rivers’ health.
The mouth of the Murray River delivers vital nutrients to marine life in the ocean beyond.
SA Water
Low flows in the Murray River in recent years have harmed tiny marine plants called phytoplankton, with consequences for local marine species and management.
Premier Jay Weatherill talks to the media about the Murray-Darling Basin rescue plan in Renmark in the Riverland of South Australia.
AAP
SA Premier Jay Weatherill has announced a Royal Commission into breaches of the Murray Darling Basin agreement. But will it solve the long running problems with river management?
Executive Director and Professor of Fisheries and River Management, Gulbali Institute (Agriculture, Water and Environment), Charles Sturt University, Charles Sturt University