The Wire

The Murray is a river which gets more parched the closer it gets to the sea – and this has meant that the Coorong and lower lakes, at the ocean end, have become saline and poisonous. This is especially disastrous for the hundreds of thousands of water birds, which travel to the Coorong from all over Australia and the world to feed. Ornithologist Dr David Paton has spent three decades studying the Coorong and monitoring the changes in plant and bird life – he’s just published what could be described as a scientific coffee table book – lovely photos and lots of information about the Coorong, which he says Australians don’t really value.