A river runs through it

The success of a major Murray-Darling basin research programme requires mixing research with politics

The Murray-Darling river system basin is geographically huge, and hugely significant to Australian life. The basin catchment supports 40 per cent of all of Australia’s farms and produces around A$22 billion worth of food and agricultural fibres every year.

But intense agricultural use has put the rivers’ health in jeopardy and drawn water away from the traditional lands of Indigenous communities, making the Murray-Darling basin a thorny political topic.