The Wire

Things have not been good at the bottom end of the Murray for a long time now – lack of water coming down the river has meant the drying up of the lakes at the mouth. This has exposed dangerous acid sulphate soils which apparently threaten water supplies. Everyone at the bottom of the Murray is doing it tough but few are happy about the latest engineering solution to the problems. Work began last week on regulators, or dams , which will seal off the Murray from the lakes, and from the wetland lagoons of the Coorong. The traditional owners of the Coorong, the Ngarrandjeri are speaking out against what they say is a terrible ecological mistake.