Nature, Harmony, and When There's None

Bleak. Stark. Still. We'd heard the stories and should've known, what with For Sale signs declaring the area's decline, that our drive through the towns of the Lower Murray would dampen the mood of our day.

Imagine you've based your life on a river. You fish for food and profit, you provide riverboats and tours for visitors. You do what your parents did, and their parents. You farm, live, exist on the river. Now, imagine a course of five years when the rains stop falling, irrigation channels are built, and the water slowly drains from your town like someone pulled the plug from the tub. This is what has happened in South Australian towns like Goolwa and the island of Hindmarsh.

A mixture of epic drought and urban water use has left the lower Murray, nearest it's mouth, with nothing but a small trickle of water. Boats sit neglected, run aground for more than a year, and tourism-centered main streets are left quiet, vacant.

I'd heard of this situation countless times on the news as some river-dwellers lobby for an injection of sea water into their basin, just to get the fishing boats afloat, and others still fight against the influx to avoid poisoning the fresh and brackish drizzle of water remaining with high-salt oceanic flow. It's another thing, entirely, to see it up close. To walk on what should have been covered three meters deep in brown-green currents.

Thanks to water locks and dams, the middle and upper Murray aren't suffering the same fate. Even other South Aussie spots, such as Renmark, are thriving on deep waters, their businesses taking up the tourist slack from the loss further south. But, as long as other states continue to drain the bulk of flow for their own use, the Murray's end will continue to become little more than a creek.

I wish there was a way, in our own homes, to contribute to the health of the Lower Murray, but it lies in the hands of politicians. This, of course, means it lies in the hands of registered voters. Follow your conscience. Even if you benefit from the re-routing of Murray waters, perhaps you can see clear to helping those who are suffering.

Climate and urban development have not been kind to Australia in the past few years. As I type this, hundreds of people are wading in knee-deep waters just to walk across their living room, submerged in the Queensland floods. Closer to home, tens of thousands of acres of Victorian and New South Wales homes, farms, and bushland are burning. And in our own back yard, there was an unbelievable life toll in the recent heat wave of more than a week above 40 C (104 F).

If the river's cause is not your cup of tea, then see if you can lend a hand to those surviving this impossible time, all during such an impossible economy. If you can't afford a financial donation, people in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and New South Wales are in need of many forms of assistance. Old air conditioners for heatwave sufferers, blood donations for fire victims, and gifts of food, clothing, books, and toys for both the flood and fire survivors. Below are a few links I've found of ways to help. If you know of others, please share them in comments.

For those worldwide, keep Australia in your thoughts.

Save the Murray, Red Cross Bushfire Relief Fund, Salvation Army Bushfire and Flood Relief Appeal, South Australian State Emergency Service, SA Drought Link