Australia’s rivers ‘can’t go back to natural state’ says ecologist

Scientists should work on restoring freshwater and floodplain habitats rather than narrowing the focus to restoring “natural flow”, one of Australia’s top river ecologists has said.

Martin Thoms, from the University of New England in regional New South Wales, argues that many of Australia’s rivers cannot be restored to their natural state.

“We have this beautiful, poetic idea that if we push enough money at them our rivers will get back to being natural,” he says in a university statement.