Restoring seawater to the Lower Lakes does not signal their destruction.Quoting a Murray Lands local:"How can the lower lakes be destroyed by the entry of seawater when this is how it was in the beginning? I can recall as a boy, the excitement of watching the sea flooding in very fast on a high tide." With vision, planning and management, a vibrant estuarine ecosystem could be reestablished in the Lower Lakes which would be more sustainable than the current degraded and artificial freshwater system. What would a seawater based ecosystem look like? 'A Likely Outcome Should the Lower Lakes Become Estuarine' is a paper by Mike Young (ret. DEH) and Ken Jury, ret. Senior Journalist (Marine & Aquatic Ecology) of Goolwa, SA, describing what could be. Read the estimation of tidal flow and how this might be done. And from Neil Charter, an essay on how South Australians should learn how to respect their estuaries. "An estuary is alive. Like a heart its tides pump in situ with the moon and the earth, bringing life along its path." Conservation of Murray-Darling Basin resourcesRestoring the Lower Lakes to seawater removes demand for up to 950 GL of freshwater per year, which is the amount lost to evaporation. This frees up precious freshwater for other wetlands of the Murray-Darling system that are struggling (dying) and that lack a seawater alternative. Socio-Economic BenefitsCoastal lakes hold great tourism appeal, in stark contrast to dry, dead lake beds. The communities surrounding the Lower Lakes depend on water, not only for crops and livestock, but water to support tourism and boating. These communities are already needlessly suffering because of the delays in finding a solution. Opening the barrages would permit tidal and storm flows to scour the Murray Mouth, making it easier to keep open. Additional efforts to stabilize the Murray Mouth to make it navigable, similar to what has been done at Lakes Entrance, would be a boon to boating and tourism. Goolwa would become a thriving port again. The Peel-Harvey Estuary and Dawesville Channel in Western Australia is similiar to the Lower Lakes. The Clarence River, the largest river on the East Coast of Australia below the tropics, is an example of a healthy estuarine system. With no barrages to hinder water flow, its tidal influence extends over 100km upstream from its mouth and minimal dredging is required to keep it's mouth navigable. The Gold Coast Broadwater is another example of a large shallow estuary of water. Separated from the ocean by the a thin strip of land called Stradbroke Island, the original body of water was a lagoon created from water deposited from the Nerang River. |