Environmental water is essential to keeping our rivers alive. By returning water to rivers and wetlands, environmental flows support native fish, birds and vegetation, improve water quality, and help reverse decades of ecological damage caused by over-extraction and regulation. Protecting water for the environment is critical for healthy ecosystems, resilient communities and a sustainable future for the Basin.
Environmental flows are the difference between living rivers and ecological collapse. Across NSW and the Murray–Darling Basin, carefully timed releases of environmental water are critical to sustaining wetlands, native fish and waterbird populations — especially as climate conditions shift back toward drought. These updates track where environmental flows are working, what’s at risk when they’re reduced or delayed, and why protecting water for the environment is essential for long-term river health and community resilience, including iconic systems like the Macquarie Marshes.
In the Northern Basin, water law has failed rivers and communities. Weak water-sharing rules, irrigation subsidies and poor governance have driven over-extraction, degrading wetlands and culturally significant rivers across the Northern Murray-Darling Basin. Inland Rivers examines how current laws prioritise irrigation over river health, undermine connectivity and cultural flows, and why urgent reform is needed to protect wetlands, communities and the Basin’s future.
Southern Basin:
In the Southern Basin, wetlands are being pushed to the brink. Chronic over-allocation, poor water-sharing rules and failed efficiency schemes have left internationally significant wetlands — including the Coorong, Lower Lakes and the Murrumbidgee River floodplain — increasingly dry and ecologically unstable. Inland Rivers examines how current water law continues to favour extraction over wetland survival, and what must change to restore river connectivity, protect biodiversity and secure the Basin’s future.
Inland Rivers Network 