Land and Water Link

April 2003

Challenging Our Water Myths

The Australian psyche is dominated by 'dreams of water', according to CSIRO Land and Water Chief Dr John Williams.

'Europeans found the landscape harsh and arid, lacking the green and park-like landscapes of Europe. The rivers were untamed: they flooded across vast plains and then dried up within weeks to become a chain of muddy pools before the cycle would begin all over again.

'Eight generations after settlement, we still have the greatest difficulty in grasping the role of water in our landscape and responding to it in an Australian way, rather than in a European or Asian manner.'

Dr Williams goes on to elaborate about what he sees as the three great myths that still dominate our thinking:

• Water allowed to run to the sea is wasted
• We must make the desert bloom
• We must drought-proof Australia.

'Each of these persistent ideas holds great danger, both for our landscape and for our sustainable future within it. We need to rid ourselves of them if we are to live like true Australians, in harmony with our land.

'The natural flow of water down a river to the sea is part of a healthy system. It is when we prevent this by damming, building weirs and taking out too much of the flow for other uses, that the river's health is placed at risk.'

'The Australian landscape, its plants and animals, have evolved to cope with episodic flooding', says Dr Williams. 'By taking out the water and preventing floods, we need to be aware we are also destroying that landscape and the rivers that give life to it.'

The key to this issue lies in getting the balance right between the needs of the natural environment, of agriculture and our cities. It also lies in being a lot smarter in how we use our water.

The second myth – making the desert bloom by turning coastal rivers to run inland – is as much in vogue today as it was 100 years ago.

'Only recently', notes Dr Williams, 'we heard plans put forward to revive the Bradfield Scheme, a 1930s plan to turn the Tully and Herbert rivers back across the divide into Central Queensland. Two centuries of development in Australia seem to have taught us little about the risks of salinity, land and water degradation, loss of habitat and species.'

The third myth of 'drought-proofing' our drier areas is equally fraught with risk, because it too, involves bringing water to places where, normally, it is only an episodic event. More to the point, from a national perspective, this is unnecessary.

Dr Williams explains: 'Australia is richly endowed with large areas of high-rainfall country around our coastline, on which we could develop reliable agriculture and horticulture. Instead, we are choosing to use them largely for urban sprawl, tourism and hobby farms – and so squandering our most precious resource in an arid continent: the combination of good soils and reliable rainfall. There is a blindness about our planning that doesn't seem to acknowledge where we actually live.'

It was concern about the persistence of these myths that drove the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists to make its widely publicised statement last November about the need to come to terms with the nature of our continent, its rivers and landscape.

'The group saw the need to focus on those issues where there is broad agreement, instead of being distracted by those where we differed', says Dr Williams. 'Although, we don't claim to have all the answers, we thought it was incumbent on us as environmental scientists to find a better way forward.'

In an attempt to set out some solutions for a sustainably managed Australia, the Wentworth Group released its Blueprint for a Living Continent (PDF, 135 kB), which identified five key areas that require fundamental reform:

1. Clarify water property rights
2. Restore environmental flows to stressed rivers
3. End broadscale landclearing of remnant native vegetation
4. Pay farmers for environmental services
5. Remove hidden environmental subsidies from the cost of food, fibre and water.

'The Wentworth Group also sees a need to cut the bureaucratic red-tape that is strangling sustainability in Australia', says Dr Williams.

'By giving power back to our communities, valuing the ecosystem services provided by native vegetation, recognising the importance of environmental flows in our rivers, and rewarding people for environmental stewardship, our generation can leave a legacy of living rivers and healthy landscapes – not drains and dustbowls.

'The critical need is not to drought-proof the inland – that is impossible. It is to myth-proof Australians. If we are to become real Australians, not merely transplants, we need to fully come to terms with the nature of our continent, its rivers and landscape.'

This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in Australasian Science.

For further information

Contact

Dr John Williams
Ph: 02 6246 5940