From ABC News (8/9/2023), mixed news about the Murray-Darling basin…
Rivers missing out on key environmental flows in Murray-Darling Basin Plan, report finds
When more than 1 million fish along the Darling (Baaka) River downstream of Menindee Lakes died in 2019, the shocking images went across the globe.
For Leroy Johnson, a Barkandji man born in Wilcannia, the impact was felt much closer to home.
“If we can’t go to the river because the water’s rotten, or the water’s not there, we cannot continue our culture,” he says.
Four years later, hundreds of kilometres north-east, the opposite happened, and a flowing river brought an ecosystem back to life.
Heavy rain, supplemented by a release of dam water, flowed towards the Narran Lakes (Dharriwaa). Fish multiplied, plants turned green and water birds began to descend in their thousands.