Antinuclear

More than a million fish died in December 2018 and January this year along the Darling River at Menindee, which was once home to 60 different fish species.

Local fisherman Graeme McCrabb still recalls the stench that saturated the town following what has been called Australia’s largest fish kill on record……….

Disconnected river system

A lack of fresh flows down the river, combined with the drought, are exacerbating the disaster.

“There’s six kilometres of dry riverbed and think when you’re looking at that everyday it’s really confronting,” he said.

“It’s a stark reminder of just how dire the situation is.”…………

Loss of culture

Barkindji man Michael ‘Smacka’ Whyman, lives upstream in Wilcannia.

He said the state of the water system is devastating to his community, the Barkindji people, or ‘Darling River folk’.

“I’d like to see the government stop draining or rivers our national waterways we’re living in the longest river in Australia and they’ve killed,” he said.

“The environmental damage alone is bloody massive.”

In September, an independent review by the state’s Natural Resources Commission found that the Barwon-Darling river system is an ‘ecosystem in crisis’.

The review found: “The weight of scientific evidence is clear: while reduced inflows due to drought, upstream extraction, and climate change are all impacting the flows in the Barwon- Darling, the Plan provisions that allow increased access to low flows have resulted in poor ecological and social outcomes downstream of Bourke.”……….

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-communities-preparing-for-more-devastating-mass-fish-deaths-in-rural-nsw