Lakes Need Water
And rivers need estuaries...
Learn why the Lower Lakes of the River Murray (Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert) should be restored to their historical estuarine environment.
Learn why barrages were constructed in the 1930's to keep the sea out and turn the lakes into permanent freshwater lakes. Look at a map of the region.
Does it make sense to continue using the barrages as sea walls instead of working with the natural estuarine environment of the Lower Lakes?
Read this 2010 Summary of the Crisis for details of the problems of the drought when the Lakes were artificially maintained as freshwater lakes when there was not enough freshwater to replenish them. Read this 2020 paper to learn about what could happen if the barrages were removed and sea levels rise under climate change.
LakesNeedWater Blog with newspaper stories from the 1900's and more.
History of the Lower Lakes and Coorong
Search parliament for Lower Lakes discussion.
This site, developed by Susan Myers, was active between 2008 and 2012, when the effects of the "Millennium Drought" were severe in South Australia and devastated the Lower Lakes region. It represents a collaboration of articles from Lower Lakes locals who asked questions and discovered information not always presented in the media and the political system. Susie's Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) Submission can be found here.
Susie lost her battle to brain cancer on 12th February 2020.
