Rivers and the Murray Darling Basin rangelands
Rivers and the Murray Darling Basin rangelands Conference Paper
16th Australian Rangeland Society Biennial Conference
- Author(s): Alexander, J.
- Published: 2010
- Publisher: Australian Rangeland Society
Abstract: A significant proportion of the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) is in the semi arid climatic zone with pastoralism a dominant land-use. Snaking through these rangelands are many thousands of kilometres of “flat, lazy” rivers and creeks, which occasionally spread floodwaters over vast areas. These floods nourish floodplains, woodlands and wetlands, bringing water and with it life to the inland. During the past summer (2009-10), widespread rains resulted in extensive flooding in the Balonne, Nebine, Paroo and Warrego and Barwon Darling systems. Rangeland and riverine management and conservation share many challenges. The Basin’s rangelands and rivers share their climate driven, drought-flood, and boom-bust cycles that span temporal scales of decades or generations. They also operate on large spatial scales and share the need for both policies and people, committed to long term, integrated and adaptive NRM informed by long term monitoring and systematic evaluation. This paper briefly profiles the importance of these riverine systems and provides an overview of the policy and planning processes aimed at ensuring their long-term sustainable management.