MANAGING AUSTRALIA’S MAJOR NATURAL RESOURCE: THE MURRAY-DARLING BASIN

Abstract

Extending over some 1 063 000 square kilometres, nearly 14 per cent of Australia, the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) is large by world standards. On the other hand, its surface runoff of 25.5 million ML per annum is small. The basin accounts for over 45 per cent of Australia’s gross value of agricultural production, with total primary and secondary production valued at some $10 000 (Australian dollars) million per annum. But as well as being Australia’s major natural resource, the MDB is also one of the nation’s major resource management problems. Excessive demands are being made on the basin’s surface waters and, in places, its groundwaters. Various forms of land degradation are imposing major costs or agricultural production and the environment. The most serious and costly problems are water and soil salinity, associated with both dryland and irrigation farming.Of all the problems involved in the management of the MDB, however, none is more critical than the fact that it is an inter-jurisdictional river basin. Its management involves six jurisdictions - the Australian federal government, the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory. The main part of the river system, the Murray, was for many years partially administered by the inter-government River Murray Waters Agreement and the River Murray Commission, while water resources in some other parts of the basin also involved particular agreements. However, they were unable to come to grips with the very serious water and land management problems that emerged through the 1970s and early 1980s.The continuing degradation of the basin’s resources, especially the salinity problems, and the inability of the existing institutions to cope with the situation had a major outcome in 1987. After two years of extensive and intensive negotiations, the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement was signed, "to promote and coordinate effective planning and management for the equitable, efficient and sustainable use of the water, land and environmental resources of the Murray-Darling Basin". The paper outlines the background to the Agreement and discusses the institutions that have been created by it, namely the MDB Ministerial Council, the MDB Commission, and the Community Advisory Committee. The innovative nature o the Agreement and its achievements, as well as its continuing problems, are examined, in part in the context of generally accepted principles for the management of inter-jurisdictional river basins. Finally, consideration is given to what may be learned from the MDB Agreement for the management of inter-jurisdictional water resources in Canada.