Murray Darling Basin

Located in the south-east of Australia, the Murray Darling Basin covers over 1 million square kilometres, encompassing Australia's three longest rivers: the Murray, Murrumbidgee and Darling. The basin is abundant with biological diversity, containing at least 35 endangered birds, 16 endangered mammal species and over 30,000 wetlands.For fish and other riverine life forms, the Murray Darling Basin is a vast interconnected network, stretching from the saline lakes of the Coorong estuary, east to the alpine streams of the Snowy Mountains and north to the inland semi-arid and tableland streams of southern Queensland. Around 70% of Australia's irrigated crops and pastures occur in the Basin.

Under expected climate change, the southern parts of the Murray-Darling Basin are likely to experience significantly reduced water availability due to reductions in winter and spring rainfall as well as increased temperatures and evaporation.

In a system already experiencing water scarcity, climate change further threatens the ecological and agricultural integrity of one of Australia's great natural icons.

Around 70% of Australia's irrigated crops and pastures occur in the Basin.