2. Rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin

The dominance of agriculture in the economy of the Murray-Darling Basin is clearly indicated by a number of parameters. The 2001 Agricultural Census (ABS 2001) found that some 3.5 per cent (290,000) of Australia ’s workforce were employed in agriculture but this figure is likely to be much higher in the Murray-Darling Basin .

Commercial agriculture is undertaken on farms and other agricultural enterprises in the MDB and covers an area of 88.6 million hectares, 19.4 per cent of the Australian total of 455.7 million hectares. The average farm size varies significantly from one location to the other, from the small horticultural properties in some of the intensive irrigation areas to the large grazing properties in the semi-arid western parts of the Basin. Land in agricultural production occupies 83.7% of the total area of the Basin. There has been a slight overall increase in the area farmed in the MDB since 1997 with a significant (22.4%) increase in irrigated agriculture in that time.

For the Basin as a whole, the gross value of agricultural production in 2000-2001 was estimated as $13.6 billon, 39.7 per cent of the Australian total of $34.2 billion.

Figure 1. Broad agricultural land use in the Murray-Darling Basin 2000/01 (Source: Bureau of Rural Sciences, 2000)