Floodwaters bring relief for parched Murray river

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The floodwaters will wash out the mouth of the Murray naturally for the first time in nearly a decade.
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The Victorian floodwaters may be unwelcome for some, but communities along the Murray are cheering.

Not only will South Australia's Riverland and Lower Lakes get a good drink, but the floodwaters will wash out the mouth of the Murray naturally for the first time in nearly a decade. Murray-Darling Basin Authority executive director David Dreverman says 900 gigalitres should flow downstream, filling up the Lower Lakes and Coorong. "We are expecting by about mid-October that the Lower Lakes will have filled and that there will indeed be a small volume to release to the sea," he said.

It will also open the Murray mouth for a few weeks, without the need for dredging. "The whole of the Murray system has been a closed system since 2001. That is, there has been virtually no flow to the sea. This would be hopefully the first significant flow for nine years," Mr Dreverman said.

Water from the Queensland floods earlier this year is also on its way. It will be released from the Menindee Lakes in New South Wales about the same time. Mr Dreverman says the extra flows will cover up acid sulphate soils in the Lower Lakes, but he says it will not solve salinity or the Murray's long-term problems.

University of Adelaide ecologist David Paton says the floods will breathe life into the system, but for a limited time. "This will give it a chance to start to recover, but if there is no further flows, if this is not going to be continually provided over the next few years in a row, this system will simply get a little burst of activity and then it will quickly drop back to the same depressed state that it might have been in," he said.

The floods come at a time when South Australia is awash. Adelaide had such a good soaking that most of the city's dams are now full or near capacity.

More: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/08/3006467.htm