Related Papers
Independent assessment of the 2018-19 fish deaths in the Lower Darling: Interim report, with provisional findings and recommendations
2019 •
Nick Bond
Independent Assessment of the 2018–19 fish deaths in the lower Darling
2019 •
Nick Bond
Australian Government
Independent assessment of the 2018-19 fish deaths in the Lower Darling: Final report
Marine and Freshwater Research
Assessment of the causes and solutions to the significant 2018–19 fish deaths in the Lower Darling River, New South Wales, Australia
2021 •
Nick Bond
In late 2018 to early 2019, three significant fish death events occurred in the Lower Darling River, Australia, with mortality estimates of millions of fish. We examined the proximate and ultimate causes of these events. We determined that not only were the conditions existing at the time a significant contributing factor, but that antecedent conditions, particularly during the period 2010–17, also contributed. The extreme hot and dry climate during 2018, extending into 2019, shaped the conditions that saw a large fish biomass, which had flourished in the Darling River and Menindee Lakes since favourable spawning conditions in 2016, isolated in weir pools, with no means of escaping upstream or downstream. Strong and persistent weir pool stratification created hypoxic conditions in the hypolimnion. A series of sudden cool changes subsequently initiated rapid and sudden mixing of the stratified waters, causing depletion of oxygen throughout the water column and resulting in the fish d...
Condition Reporting of Basin Plan Regions and Indicator Key Environmental Assets. Ecological Associates Report number AO-014-1-B
Shahadat Chowdhury
The Basin Plan region in best condition was the Paroo, which was assessed with a minor degree of impairment to ecological condition. The ecological characteristics of this region are largely intact. The condition of seven regions is moderately impaired, and these are mostly in the north-east of the basin. The Ovens in the only moderately impaired region in the south-east of the basin. A relatively low degree of hydrological modification is common to all the regions with moderate or minor impairment. Several also have extensive areas of intact native vegetation in the catchment. Ecological condition in seven regions are significantly impaired; flora and fauna communities have been altered and continue to be degraded by ongoing threats. These regions are largely in the south and south-east of the basin where water resources have been developed for irrigation and agricultural development has degraded habitat at the riparian and regional scale. The four most severely impacted regions ar...
A tale of two rivers -Baaka and Martuwarra, Australia: Shared voices and art towards water justice
2023 •
sarah martin
Two of Australia's iconic river systems, Baaka in New South Wales (NSW) and Martuwarra in Western Australia (WA), are described in a narrative that connects Indigenous custodianship, bio-physical features and art, and contrasts settler law with First Law to provide multiple ways of seeing the two river systems. Our narrative is a shared response to: (1) upstream water extractions that have imposed large costs on Baaka and its peoples; and (2) threats of water extractions and developments to Martuwarra. By scribing the voices of the two river systems, we have created a space to reimagine an emerging future that connects the past and present through the concept of 'EveryWhen', where First Law has primacy, and where art connects Indigenous knowledges to non-Indigenous understanding. Through a dialogue process with Indigenous knowledge holders, artists and water researchers, five action processes, or journeys, are identified to guide water decision making towards water justice.
Geographical Research
Enacting multiple river realities in the performance of an environmental flow in Australia’s Murray‐Darling Basin
2021 •
Sue Jackson
207-18 Basin-scale evaluation of Commonwealth environmental water - Synthesis Report
2021 •
Nick Bond
Final report prepared for the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office by La Trobe University.
Review of the Operation of the Cap : Ecological Sustainability of Rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin
2000 •
Martin Thoms
Marine and Freshwater Research
Kills in the Darling: assessing the impact of the 2018–20 mass fish kills on the fish communities of the Lower Darling–Baaka River, a large lowland river of south-eastern Australia
2021 •
Katherine Cheshire
Understanding the impacts of extreme events is essential to effective fisheries management. During the summer of 2018–19 millions of native fish died in Lower Darling–Baaka River adjacent to Menindee, New South Wales, Australia. Hypoxia during a period of protracted low flow, triggered by climatic events, was responsible for the fish kills. From June 2019 to March 2020, further broader-scale fish kills occurred throughout ~600km of the Darling–Baaka River as disconnected refuge pools contracted and water quality deteriorated. This study examined the status of the remnant fish populations, compared the fish assemblage of the Menindee fish death reach with an unaffected reach and monitored change of the fish community over 18 months after the initial fish kills. Significantly lower abundances of Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii), bony herring (Nematalosa erebi), carp gudgeon (Hypseleotris spp.) and freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium australiense) were captured within the Menindee fish d...
