Murray Darling basin and the lower lakes

By Bob Fernley-Jones, 13/03/12

This is an extract from a formal complaint I made to the ABC concerning misleading information presented by “The Science Show”.  It was rejected by the ABC and by the ACMA on the grounds that there is no requirement that the Science show be accurate, that the claims were opinion rather than objective facts, and that balance was achieved on other programmes such as “current affairs”.

d) “…but one of the projections of climate models is that we see a band of drying across the southern part of the continent, in south Western Australia and Victoria and extending roughly up to the latitude of the ACT. That is a predicted consequence of climate change…”

Comment: Oh really? Please study these rainfall graphs published by our BOM. See footnote [2] concerning the extent of the Murray-Darling Basin.

Or, how about this first photo: “Dry river bed of the Murray river at Myall near Kerang, Victoria, 1914. During the Federation drought it stopped flowing for about 6 months.” Or, secondly, at Mildura; camels crossing. Nowadays of course, this is the realm of houseboats, and summer deaths in boating and water sports reportedly exceed those on the roads in the region.

And, on a more romantic but highly relevant note, check out that magnificent poem of 1904 by Dorothea MacKellar, describing horrible drought, a decade before those photos. (the first verse compares England)

http://www.lancescoular.com/my-country-by-dorothea-mackellar.html

The following graph is currently showing improved Victorian regional water reserves in the past eight years through to end of October 2010. That was before the big rains and floods in November-December.   Melbourne storages are also at the highest level in 5 years.