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The Vanishing River -
Voices From The Darling
Preliminary Report on
Socioeconomic Impacts on Murray/Darling Basin
Go to -
https://www.
basin-socio-economic.com.au/47038/widgets/250651/documents/147509
The latest - Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists Report -
September 3, 2020
Thank you for coming to this website.
This site reviels the very real and tragic human suffering
and the environmental vandalism now being endured in
Western NSW; it shares with the world, the voices of people
who actually live along the Darling River and
Menindee Lakes in Australia.
Please make the time to hear about
the zero river-flows affecting
peoples lives, environments and communities.
Although engaging and compelling,
the interviews below
are not entertainment,
they are serious.
If you are interested
in better understanding
the crisis on the Darling and
what is actually happening
with water in NSW;
please read on
and engage with this website.
Especially on page 4 of this site,
the "Links" page.
START -
An ever increasing and multiplying crime against Australian peoples and our Habitat has been occurring for fifteen years
right under our noses.
By draining Menindee Lakes
and keeping them dry;
every day for nearly five years
one billion litres of water vapour
(that is one million tons of water per day)
has been stopped from reaching
the semi-arid deserts
of Western NSW.
The result is
a drying and dying desert ecosystem
and the destabilization of soils and plants
that have held the region together
for tens of thousands of years.
And, increasing dust storms!
Some say this evaporation is wasted water,
actually, it is a miracle in nature.
This is a link to the
Download Page
where you can download the podcasts of these interviews to your own computer or device.
"The Future"
The future is not some place we are going to,
it is a place we are creating.
The paths to it are not found, they are made,
and the activity of making them,
changes both the maker,
and the destination.
Anonymous
Tony Smith
Darling River Man - Wentworth
"Jail time, to make people realise you can't mess with nature.
A royal commission is the only way
to get to the bottom of it."
Tony Smith & Mark Merritt 15m49s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Outback Mick & Nugget Caretakers - Menindee Caravan Park
"They're killing our river.
They're not only taking our water....
they're poisoning and
polluting it too."
Outback Mick & Mark Merritt 12m58s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Kelly Norris
Cafe Manager &
Youth Wrangler - Wilcannia
"Let's fix this together, Australia.
Its our country, our people.
Let's look after them."
Kelly Norris & Mark Merritt 12m23s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Sarah Moles
Author - Warwick Qld.
"I'm watching this space with bated breath, because I know there is more to come, and I can't wait, for a very bright light, and a very, very forensic examination to be made of what exactally has gone on."
Sarah Moles & Mark Merritt 13m15s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Sarah Moles - 2018 Peoples Tribunal 13m24s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Cathryn Milne
Student and Environmentalist
Mildura
"We need a royal commission NOW and a grass roots human movement."
Cathryn Milne & Cath Eaglesham 14m47s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Barry Stone
Employment Agent,
lives on Lake Menindee.
Behind him, 15 kilometres of
dry lake-bed to the other side.
"We out here are looking at
total destruction of
the outback of New South Wales, total destruction.
And, I'd like to say
to the city fellas, we are
not bullshitting you here.
We are living it !"
Barry Stone & Mark Merritt 33m57s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Kevin Davey
Remembers the healthy
Darling of the old days
"We're in trouble, we've got to wake up to ourselves"
"We used to get yabbies
as big as beer bottles."
Kevin Davey & Mark Merritt 12m9s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Dr. Beryl Carmichael
Indigenous Elder - Menindee
"It's a rights violation
of all life forms"
Beryl Carmichael & Earthling Studios 12m35s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Darriea Turley
Mayor of Broken Hill
"What we need to do is stay focused on the health of the Darling River."
Darriea Turley & Earthling Studios 23m25s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Graham Clark
Barkindji Elder,
Lower Darling
"Whatever happened -
to the river ?
Whatever happened
to our land ?"
Graham Clarke & Cath Eaglesham 12m22s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Rachael Strachan
Farmer - Tulney Pt. Station, Lower Darling
"They are killing
the womb of the basin."
Rachael Strachan & Earthling Studios 20m10s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Dr. Michelle Maloney
Australian Earth Laws Alliance
"Rights Of Nature and Earth Laws wants to shift the current dominant legal system so that it actually respects life".
Michelle Maloney AELA & Susie Peake 12m34s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Michelle Maloney AELA & Mark Merritt 32m54s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Sharon Corkery
Manager - Tilpa Pub
"There's a lot of anger..there's just pure disgust and a lot of sadness - because it's their livelihoods."
Sharon Corkery & Cath Eaglesham 11m - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Trevor Mallon
Ex-Miner - Menindee
"I even give my dog rain water. That's how bad the river is."
Trevor Mallon & Earthling Studios 11m28s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Bradley Hardy
Ngemba Educator, Brewarrina
"The river is our community. Without the river we have no community. We need to come together to fix these things."
Bradley Hardy & Mark Merritt 12m21s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Kate McBride
Wool-Grower & Student
Tolarno Station - Lower Darling
"I've watched in my lifetime,
an entire town being destroyed .."
- Menindee did have a population of over 1000, and up to 500 seasonal workers,
Up to 300 tourists per day
signed the visitors book.
Today the population is just over 300. -
Kate McBride & Mark Merritt 13m11s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Ross Files
Born in Menindee -1939
"When you destroy a river, you destroy
all the people on it."
Ross Files & Mark Merritt 21m12s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Robert McBride
Wool Grower - Farmer
Darling River Guardian
"The Prime Minister must run a Federal Royal Commission, if he doesn't then the Darling River system will collapse and die, as will The Murray."
Rob McBride & Mark Merritt 20m2s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Jacqui Pasquale
Educator - Wentworth
"We don't want to live on a river that's got no water in it."
Jacqui PasQuale & Mark Merritt 12m18s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Jacqui Pasquale & Cath Eaglesham 13m25s - Earthling Stusios
00:00 / 00:00
Cherry & Don Cullinan
Wentworth, in western NSW
where the Darling and
Murray Rivers should meet.
Photo - Boat, by a dry
Lake Menindee,
15 kilometres to the other side.
Where is the water now ???
"If we could stop the greed with
these big Cubby Stations,
that's where the problem lies.
A Federal Royal Commission would be a lot better off - same as the banks,
if they got into it, delved into it
properly they would find
heaps of problems."
Don and Cherry Cullinan & Mark Merritt 18m11s - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Rights of Nature Legislature and legal protection over
life supporting ecosystems
are needed if we are to realise a future on
our fragile Earth.
___________________
The fish-kills at Menindee were not
about the drought,
they were and are about
the legal yet immoral
over allocated extraction
of water by irrigators;
farm chemical runoff and chronic water and land pollution.
The proof
is in Menindee weir
and Lake Wetherill
right now.
All governments seem to be deliberately ignoring the most probable cause of the problem - the fertilisers and other farm chemical runoff that is coming from massive irrigation operations in the upper Darling catchment.
The same scenario,
blue-green algae outbreaks
and fish-kills,
are starting to be seen
along the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers too, where flood irrigated agriculture
operations
have been starting up
in recent years.
________________________
The three interviews below
are related to the first
fish-kill of around ten thousand
fish on December 19th 2018.
The people in them
had no idea that in just three weeks there would be
millions of rotting fish floating
in the centre of their town, Menindee.
Barry Stone, on 1st Menindee Fish-kill 19-12-18 - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Barry Helms on 1st Menindee fish-kill 19-12-18 - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
Dr Beryl Carmichael on 1st Menindee fish-kill 19-12-18 - Earthling Studios
00:00 / 00:00
This fishkill was a local, regional, national, international
and global disaster.
What kind of supreme bastardry has been dished out
over the past 20 years,
to the ecosystems and
people along the Darling,
Menindee & Broken Hill ?
Is this about
firstly killing off
and then mining out
The Menindee Lakes ? Some people say it is.
How did this happen ?
Only the M.D.B.A. and a Federal Royal Commission will ever find out what has really been going on with "The Money" & "The Water"
over the past 20 years.
______________________________
Please read all five pages
on this site,
then explore it
to find out more,
starting at the interviews
with people who live where there once was a river.
And please share this with
your family and friends.
To understand
what water does -
is to better understand
our world,
and what Life is.
- - - - -
Every
living thing on Earth,
has water in it,
if not
it is not living.
- - - - -
Water is part of
Earth's Habitat
and does not
belong to people,
and definitely
not to governments
or the banks!
- - - - -
Australia's large dams
are largely full of
private property,
not
publicly shared
life-giving
water.
- - - - -
When the fires subside and the world
is filled with smouldering embers
and things that have died in flames,
we will realise,
it was, and still is,
all about water.
- - - - -
To have allowed capitalism and the banks to control the hydrodynamics of our Habitat in Australia will likely be recognised as one of mankind's greatest mistakes ever.
- - - - -
The delicate balance of all natural systems must be protected
by law,
to preserve
THE RIGHTS
OF NATURE
and biodiversity
to balance, continue
and flourish.
- - - - -
Trees and all plants
bring water and life
into our world.
Bare Earth and cleared lands bring
dust death
and misery.
The evaporation and groundwater
absorption of Menindee Lakes
when full, is said to be about
350 gigalitres per year, or 1 gig./day.
That is one billion litres,
or one million tons of water per day,
evaporating and blowing across the
Semi-arid deserts of Western NSW.
This evaporation and the corresponding condensation has supported plants and all
life in the west of New South Wales
for over 500 thousand years.
To stop the Darling River flowing,
drain Menindee Lakes and prohibit this vital absorption, evaporation and condensation
is environmental vandalism
of the highest order.
It is a classic case of
industry driven "Ecocide".
It is a crime against our future!
If continued
it's very likely to unleash an atmospheric, geologic and social nightmare,
that will affect every Australian
for many generations;
if not permanently.
- - - - - -
The Menindee Lakes and a
flowing Darling River
soaks down into the Earth,
filling vital underground aquifers
that carry water
throughout the region.
This also seems to be totally overlooked
by irrigators, NSW Water
and the Murray Darling Basin Authority,
as they continue
to allow the retention and extraction
of every last drop of water
for northern-basin
irrigation operations.
- - - - - -
Eventually a federal royal commission
will find a way to understand
the effects of water-trading
and floodplain harvesting
on our land, our wildlife
and on our people.
It is futile for governments
to resist this.
The longer it takes
the federal government
to make such a commission,
the closer we all get to civil disruption
unseen in Australia since
1854
at the Eureka Stockade.
And if you don't believe that,
go out there west of Bourke and Cobar and talk to the people
who have had their ONLY truly sustainable
supply of water CUT OFF
by selfish, shortsighted
money driven fools.
The behaviour of federal and state
Departments of Agriculture
and our banks
have much to answer for
in all of this.
- - - - - -
Talk with your family and friends
about this.
We Australians have now
lost control of our nation's fresh water.
It is being sold
and left to corporations,
banks and extractive overseas investors
to determine where and when
the rivers in Australia will flow.
And even more importantly,
where the water in the rivers
will eventually go.
The result of just fifteen years
of water-trading, is shown here
behind this text.
The Darling River,
a cradle of life for millenia,
has vanished
into environmental and social
catastrophe.
Please enguage with the content on all five pages of this site.
There is a virtual mine of information contained here.
There are some things going terribly badly in Australia;
for the sake of our children
and the amazing wildlife on this Earth,
many things have got be changed.
The fact is that state and federal government pollicies,
are right now actually killing people and spoiling Habitat
in Western NSW.
This, cannot be denied or tolerated.
Link to the next page:
A letter for The Prime Minister of Australia
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