Myth and the Murray

did you know…

Myth and the Murray is a group of Australians concerned about the Murray Darling and in particular its estuary.

We believe:

1. The health of a river system is more than the quantity of water flowing downstream;

2. Current management of the terminal coastal lake system as an artificial freshwater oasis is unsustainable;

3. Restoring the Murray River’s estuary must be a priority in any Murray Darling Basin Plan;

4. Restoring the estuary must involve fixing the barrages which currently prevent inflows from the Southern Ocean; and

5. The current focus on buying back irrigation licences, while ignoring the crippled Murray River estuary and the impact of the barrage, is misguided, unsustainable and irresponsible.

We base our assessment of the current problems in the Murray Darling, not on government reports unduly influenced by activist campaigning, but instead on peer-reviewed science and hard data.

Our logo is the mulloway fish. In 1939, millions of mulloway were trapped against the new barrage structure as they tried to make their way into the lakes to spawn. More than 595 tonnes of mulloway were caught that year. Fast forward to 2008-09 and the annual catch of mulloway was only 39 tonnes. The barrages devastated the mulloway fishery and crippled the Murray River’s estuary.