The Lakes were Fresh!

This article by Milang resident Terry Sim,
appeared in the February 2008 edition of the Milang News.
It is reproduced with permission of the author

The original story is here. (pdf 392 Kb)

Because of the present condition of Lakes Alexandrina and Albert, caused by over-allocation and exacerbated by the drought, there have been calls to "open the barrages and let seawater in, returning them to their natural state".

For thousands of years the Murray discharged freshwater to the sea through the Murray mouth. Before Europeans began extracting water from the system there were very few extended periods when saltwater was present. (Work by Flinders University suggests the last time saltwater was present for any length of time was 1,700 years ago.)

My interest in the Lakes began in the 1950's as a boy growing up at Milang. Even then there was differing opinions on what the Lakes were like. I began collecting any information that I could find. I have searched libraries, archives, parliamentary reports, newspapers, diaries, letters. All manner of things for information.
I found such things as the following showing the Lakes were fresh until Europeans altered them…..

In the early 1800s sealers and whalers working in the vicinity of southern Australia knew of and visited an inland freshwater lake.
George "Fireball" Bates lived with a group of Ngarrindjeri on a freshwater lake, we now know as Lake Alexandrina, for several months in the early 1820's.

A report by Cock, Finlayson, Barton and Wyatt, who in 1837 after walking from Adelaide, swam in Lake Alexandrina at the mouth of the Bremer states:

The lake appears to be of vast extent, the waters being quite sweet and fresh.

Charles Sturt in a report to the South Australian Government after visiting the area in 1838:

During my late visit I never observed the sea running in, but a strong current always setting out of the channel. From what I observed, I am led to think, that the level of the lake is above high water mark. The narrowness of the channel preventing the body of water thrown into it, by the Murray from being thrown out in the same proportion. The immense body of back water in the chain of lagoons, would be an argument in favour of this supposition.

The Southern Argus, in 1875, describing Lake Alexandrina says,

...it is 12 miles from our town (Strathalbyn), and is a noble lake of fresh water. Goolwa being built at the extreme west end of Lake Alexandrina, where the river, after running through the lake, joins the sea.

In 1903 the Southern Argus explained that conditions had changed because,

Through the joint influences of long continued drought and an increasing diversion of its waters in its upper course, the River Murray has so steadily lowered its levels that its lower reaches and the lakes which for centuries it had supplied with a constant flow of fresh water, have fallen to sea level, with the result that instead of the river 'rushing out to sea' the tides of the ocean have flowed in, changing the freshwater lakes to salt ones, and carrying the ocean waters so far upstream that as far as Murray Bridge it is 'salt as the sea'.

By 1912, the same newspaper stated:

But meanwhile the river is being so drained by irrigation works that its level is so steadily sinking that the lower stretches are becoming almost tidal, and the sea water is finding its way far up stream, so sluggish is the current opposing it. Lakes Alexandrina and Albert have been robbed of their value and character to a very great extent, and become a menace instead of a rich asset to the people resident on their shores.

Leslie Goode of Goolwa told an enquiry in 1933:

I can remember when it was a remarkable thing when saltwater came up to the Goolwa wharf. Now we see saltwater in the lakes for months.

In a very short space of time the lakes of freshwater had been so diminished that seawater was entering. This caused vast changes to not only wildlife but to those reliant on the Lakes. Some animals and plants disappeared for ever. We now no longer see brolgas or magpie geese. Huge beds of waterweed were killed off. Farmers at huge expense had to find alternative sources of water.

A deputation of farmers from Lakes to the Minister of Agriculture in 1930 informed the Minister

...that there was about 180 miles of frontage around the Lakes and the importance of the matter at hand would be realised when it was considered how much money had been invested in this land. Values had been much higher on account of the fresh water facilities. Landowners felt they had a serious grievance in as much as it looked as though they were likely to be robbed of their riparian rights by the substitution of salt water for fresh. One of the consequences of this would be the destruction of vegetation and there would be more erosion than is going on at present.

Mr Pearce of Point Sturt reported that:

It was deplorable that while ten or twelve years ago they had a fresh water lake, they had now almost constantly a salt one. He referred also to damage to fodder growths, fencing and other resultant evils due to salt water.

We as a community should be fighting to preserve our Lakes as freshwater Lakes.
We should be demanding that governments look after, not only the Murray Darling but all rivers, from the end of system upstream.
We all know that the drought is affecting the river, but it is over-allocation that is killing it.
We need to allow water to flow down the river and out to sea to maintain a healthy working river.

We should never sell our Lakes and the Coorong short. They are too wonderful and precious to let die. For thousands of years they have been the home of freshwater flora and fauna. In a short space of time we have almost killed them.

We need to act now to revive them.

Terry Sim

You can get FREE copies from the author, PO Box 35 Milang SA 5256, the Natural Resouces Centre in Strathalbyn, contact Tony Randall, gwlap(at)lm.net.au, or you can download it as a pdf here (~4.1 Mb)