A Brief History of the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement

Introduction

In pre-federation days, managing the River Murray was a problem for the colonies of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The task was made even more complex by the fact that, for much of its length, the boundary between New South Wales and Victoria was - and still is - the top of the bank on the Victorian side of the Murray. The Murray was also a major means of transport, which added a further complicating factor which explains the presence of a number of clauses in the Australian Constitution that came into operation with the Federation of Australia in 1901 (Wright 1978). With the first diversions of water from the Murray for irrigation in the 1880s, conflict developed with those concerned with the use of the river for navigation.

One of the first discussions on managing the Basin took place in 1863 at a conference held in Melbourne between New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to consider putting locks on the rivers to improve their navigability. The conference concluded that the commerce, population, and wealth of Australia could be largely increased by rendering navigable and otherwise utilising the great rivers of the interior such as the Murray, Edward, Murrumbidgee and Darling.

Although nothing resulted from this conference, at least all of the participants were in agreement (Eastburn 1990). Many other conferences were held over the following 40 years, but little progress was made, largely due to the prevailing parochialism of the three colonies at the time.

The River Murray Waters Agreement

The Murray was the subject of many inquiries and commissions relating to its administration, the use of the river for navigation and other purposes, and particularly to ensure that South Australia received guaranteed minimum flows throughout the year (Powell 1993). The severe drought that extended from 1895 to 1902 largely brought the colonies/States together. A non-government organised conference in Corowa in 1902 provided the catalyst that eventually resulted in a workable agreement between the states. However, it was not until 1915 that the River Murray Waters Agreement was signed by the governments of Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It took a further two years to establish the River Murray Commission which had the task of putting the River Murray Waters Agreement into effect.

In spite of its limitations and even though it marked the minimum upon which formal agreement could be reached, the River Murray Waters Agreement was a pioneering document ahead of its time. The same can be said of the River Murray Commission. Its prime task was the regulation of the main stream of the Murray to ensure that each of the three riparian states, and especially South Australia, received their agreed shares of the Murray's water (see The River Murray system).

The main provisions in the first Agreement for the regulation of the River Murray were:

the construction of a storage on the upper Murray;
the construction of a storage at Lake Victoria;
the construction of 26 weirs and locks on the Murray between Blanchetown in South Australia and Echuca in Victoria; and
the construction of nine weirs and locks on the lower part of either the Darling or Murrumbidgee Rivers (the Murrumbidgee was selected).

Over the 70 years it was in operation, various amendments were made to the River Murray Waters Agreement, reflecting shifts in community values and changes in economic conditions. By no means were all of the changes free of conflict, a comment that also applies to some actions of the Commission, in particular the abandonment of the Chowilla Dam proposal and the construction of Dartmouth Dam (Wright 1974). The powers of the River Murray Commission were gradually extended, both by amendment and informal practice (Table 1), but its prime concern remained with water quantity. The Hume and Dartmouth Dams were built, as were 13 locks and weirs between Blanchetown and Torrumbarry, the Lake Victoria storage, the Maude and Redbank Weirs on the Murrumbidgee, and the Barrages at the Murray Mouth (see The River Murray system).

In the late 1960s, the River Murray Commission conducted salinity investigations in the Murray Valley. This initiative ultimately led to the further amendment of the River Murray Waters Agreement in 1982 and the broadening of the Commission's role to take account of water quality issues in its water management responsibilities. With the increasing evidence that the successful management of the Basin's river systems was directly related to land use throughout the catchment, further amendments to the Agreement in 1984 enhanced the Commission's environmental responsibilities, but only in a very limited way.

Emerging difficulties

In spite of the changes made to the River Murray Waters Agreement in the early 1980s, it was recognised that the River Murray Waters Agreement and the River Murray Commission were increasingly unable to meet the needs of the Basin's management and its growing resource and environmental problems. This was also a time when important changes were taking place in water resources administration at both State and Commonwealth levels. Further, individual agencies within the separate states were unable to tackle the developing problems of environmental degradation, including such issues as rising water salinity and irrigation-induced land salinisation. It was gradually realised that critical issues were no longer confined within distinct jurisdictions, but extended across state boundaries.

The increasing awareness of the escalating problems that emerged in the Basin through the 1960s to the 1980s was evident in the reports of enquiries of all kinds, many of which called for urgent action (see for example SSCSE 1979). It was evident in the statements from governments and their various agencies, not least the River Murray Commission itself, and also in the increasing calls for action from individuals and groups within the wider community, especially the predecessor of the Murray Darling Association (Wells 1994).

A unique occasion

These mounting pressures had their outcome in October 1985, when a meeting was held in Adelaide of ministers responsible for land, water and other environmental resources from the governments of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the Commonwealth. The meeting was called to discuss the resource and environmental problems of the Murray-Darling Basin and in particular salinity and land degradation. The meeting was followed by two years of intensive meetings and negotiations by politicians and bureaucrats from the four governments. At both inter-state and intra-state levels, the people involved came to know each other in a way that had never occurred before. The outcome was the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement.

The Agreement provided the foundation for the Murray-Darling Basin Initiative by putting in place a process for the effective management of the water, land and other environmental resources on a Basin-wide basis. In the relatively short period of time since it commenced, this process has resulted in substantive achievements (see Policies, Strategies and Basin-wide Planning).

References

Eastburn, D. (1990): The River Murray History at a Glance. Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra.

Powell, J.M. (1993): The Emergence of Bioregionalism in the Murray-Darling Basin. Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra.

SSCSE [Senate Standing Committee on Science and the Environment] (1979): Continuing Scrutiny of Pollution: the River Murray. Parliamentary Paper 117/79. Government Printer, Canberra.

Wells, A. (1994): Up and Doing: a brief history of the Murray Valley Development League, now the Murray Darling Association, from 1944 to 1994. Murray Darling Association, Albury.

Wright, D.I. (1974): "Politics, psychology and water: Chowilla". Australian Journal of Politics and History, 20, 370-379.

Wright, D. (1978): "The River Murray: microcosm of Australian federal history". pp. 277-286 in Federalism in Canada and Australia: the early years, edited by B.W. Hodgins et al. Wilfred Laurier Press, Waterloo and Australian National University Press, Canberra.

Table 1 Evolution of the River Murray Waters Agreement, 1914 to 1981

(a) Matters beyond the powers of the Commission in 1914

Problems arising on tributary rivers.
Problems caused by adjacent land-use.
Problems of flood mitigation and protection.
Problems of erosion and catchment protection.
Problems of water quality and pollution from agricultural and other sources.
Problems of influent and defluent waters.
The needs of flora and fauna.
Possible recreational, urban or industrial use.
The environment or aesthetic consequences of particular proposals.

(b) Matters permitted by previous amendments and informal practice before 1976

Limited powers of catchment protection.
Power to initiate future proposals.
Provision of certain dilution flows to maintain water quality.
Lock maintenance work, improving navigability.
Provision of recreational facilities.
Expenditure on salinity investigations.
Expenditure on re-designed works to protect fish life.
Construction and operation of storages on tributaries.

(c) Principal innovations in agreement reached in October, 1981

Power to consider any or all relevant water management objectives including water quality, in the investigation, planning and operation of works.
Power to monitor water quality.
Power to co-ordinate studies concerning water quality in the River Murray.
Power to recommend water quality standards for adoption by the states.
Power to make recommendations to any government agency or tribunal on any matter which may affect the quantity or quality of River Murray waters.
Power to make representations to any government agency concerning any proposal which may significantly affect the flow, use, control or quality of River Murray waters.
Power to recommend future changes to the Agreement.
New water accounting provisions.

Source: Clark, S.D. (1982): "The River Murray Waters Agreement: down the drain or up the creek?" Civil Engineering Transactions, 24, 201-208.