Murrumbidgee River
Coordinator: Carolyn Young,
Department of Infrastructure Planning and Natural Resources
 Introducing
the Murrumbidgee River Catchment
The Murrumbidgee River Catchment in New South Wales
is one of the CRC's five focus
catchments. The information given below is intended
to give readers a feel for the physical nature of
the catchment, the key issues facing catchment managers
in the region, and key stakeholder groups involved
in catchment management and waterway-related research.
Introduction
The Murrumbidgee catchment is a major sub-catchment of the Murray Darling Basin and covers an area of 73,400 km2. The Murrumbidgee catchment is bounded on the east by the Great Dividing Range, and lies between the Lachlan Catchment to the north and the Murray Catchment to the south. Extending from the alpine areas and Southern Tablelands in the east to the Southwest Slopes and onto the Riverine Plains in the west, the catchment is highly variable in terms of physical characteristics. Due to this variability, the catchment area is often divided into three management areas - upper, mid and lower.
The Murrumbidgee River flows for 1,600km and plays host to 14 major dams and
8 large weirs. The Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric
Scheme assists with regulating water flow and
supplying the 10,000kms of irrigation channels.
Land use varies from sheep and cattle grazing, conservation reserves and expansion of residential areas in upper catchment to irrigated agriculture, horticulture, dryland cropping and grazing, and forestry in the mid and lower areas of the catchment (web site). The Murrumbidgee catchment is one of the most densely populated regions in rural Australia - over 520,000 people, including the ACT, with a growth rate of 1.5% pa.
The 'Murrumbidgee Action Plan' (MCMC 1998) has identified issues for the Murrumbidgee. Those high priority issues relating to the impact of land use on rivers are listed below:
- surface water quality management;
- remnant native vegetation management;
- dryland salinity and water logging;
- irrigation salinity and water logging;
- weed management;
- soil erosion;
- soil acidity;
- streambank erosion;
- riparian zone management;
- native vegetation decline;
- irrigation management;
- pest animal management; and
- wetland management.
Predicted land use changes in the Murrumbidgee catchment include:
- Increase in soft wood development;
- Increase in vineyards (although this could slow down from current rates);
- The occurrence of dryland salinity in the upper-mid catchments and the resulting awareness of the problem (and access to funding) will probably lead to people changing their land use to prevent/reverse/control dryland salinity ie changing land use to native pasture, timber (including. carbon credits);
- More hobby farms, especially around Canberra.
Project planning process
The CRC for Catchment Hydrology plans to test bed some of its research in the
Murrumbidgee catchment. Projects are in an advanced
state of planning and some should commence in the
first half of 2000. Research issues considered will
include: water yield changes resulting from land
use change and sediment and nutirent movement through
the Murrumbidgee's stream channel network (see September
1999 Catchword article "Fluxes and stores
in river systems" by Jon Olley and Ian Prosser).
References/further information
Murrumbidgee Catchment Action Plan for Integrated Natural Resources Management.
Murrumbidgee Catchment Management Committee(1998).
Carolyn Young
Focus Catchment Coordinator (Murrumbidgee River
Catchment)
cyoung@dipnr.nsw.gov.au
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