The issue is related to the Murray River in the southeast of the country:
The problem is that the Murray River is currently suffering river bank collapses along a 270 km stretch. The land adjacent to the banks is cracking, some collapses have already occurred, and the situation is getting progressively worse.
Image of an ongoing riverbank failure on the Murray (from here)The problem is being blamed on the current drought in south Australia. As a result the flow level in the Murray River is at historically low levels. It is not immediately clear to me whether this means that the riverbanks have been debutressed by the reduced flow, or are cracking due to being exceptionally dry, or have lost the stabilising affect of vegetation due to the drought, or a combination of all three (or even some other factor), but the situation is clearly critical.
The picture in your blog of the gentleman next to the collapse is at the marina where we keep our boat, so I'm rather familiar with the collapses. You can say the cause is a "combination" of all three, plus a couple.
ReplyDeleteAs for the reason for the depletion of the Lower Murray River, well, that's more contentious. It is partially the drought, but it's also overallocation of irragation water upstream, where what flows have entered the river are being held behind locks, dams and in reservoirs for future irragation purposes. To add insult to injury, they are currently building a new pipeline to Melbourne that will challenge available environmental flows even further.