Karyn Bradford - Water Symposium, Strathalbyn - 13th April 2007

Our theme today has been about water. Governments are talking (or not talking) about who should look after water. Water is part of our psyche - we dream about it, want to live as close as we can to it, want to see it from our windows, we play in and around it and we certainly can't survive without it. I've lived at Milang all of my life and so have some wonderful recollections about water. I went to learn to swim lessons in the lake, yabbying with a scruffy old yabby pot that my Nan made for me of chicken wire and hessian, ate congoli that my grandfather had caught, river fish like congoli and callop are still my favourite today. I'm sure you've got wonderful water based memories too.

Water expressions have become included in our language. We ‘test the water' or we might be ‘in over our heads' or ‘all at sea'. We might ‘go to water' and for something that happened in the past we say it was ‘water under the bridge'. Right at the moment I'd say we're really ‘in hot water'.

Our religions also have water playing a key role in rebirth and purification. At a funeral service Buddhist monks fill a bowl to overflowing while reciting ‘as the rains fill the rivers and overflow into the oceans, so likewise may what is given here reach the departed'.

All of Australia's major cities are built along the country's coastline, away from its arid interior. They all centre around natural water features like deep harbours and rivers. Those features provide water supplies, transport and recreation facilities.

Look at the current trend for people to include ponds and fountains in their homes and gardens and the number of house interiors that have water inspired colours and motifs.

Look also at Australians love affair with water sports, swimming, sailing, water polo, triathlons. Water recreation is also high on our list of priorities, boating, swimming, fishing.

Yet with all of this focus on water many have lost empathy for water and the environment. We enjoy and take for granted water and we've forgotten that the environment can't speak for itself, that its imperative for all of us to protect water.

I guess that question is why have we let this happen. Dr John Williams from CSIRO would say that it is because there are three myths that dominate Australians thinking where water is concerned.

We must drought-proof Australia

We must make the desert bloom

Water allowed to run to the sea is wasted.


The idea of ‘drought-proofing' our drier areas is fraught with risk, because it involves bringing water to places where, normally, it is only there occasionally. ‘The critical need is not to drought-proof the inland - that is impossible. It is to myth-proof Australians. If we are to become real Australians, not merely transplants, we need to fully come to terms with the nature of our continent, its rivers and landscape'.

The second myth - making the desert bloom by turning coastal rivers to run inland - is as much in vogue today as it was 100 years ago.

‘Only recently', notes Dr. Williams, ‘we heard plans put forward to revive the Bradfield Scheme, a 1930's plan to turn the Tully and Herbert rivers back across the divide into Central Queensland. Two centuries of development in Australia seem to have taught us little about the risks of salinity, land and water degradation, loss of habitat and species'.

The third myth is the one that I would like to focus on today.

Dr Williams says that ‘The natural flow of water down a river to the sea is part of a healthy system. It is when we prevent this by damming, building weirs and taking out too much of the flow for other uses, that the river's health is placed at risk'.

‘The Australian landscape, its plants and animals, have evolved to cope with episodic flooding', says Dr Williams. "By taking out the water and preventing floods, we need to be aware we are also destroying that landscape and the rivers that give life to it.'

At my end of the river it is patently obvious that we are destroying the river environment through overallocation. The government's announcement of a proposed weir at Wellington to completely disconnect the river from it's estuary was a plan that would devastate the Coorong Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Ramsar site that myself and so many other locals had been working to protect..

How did the November weir announcement make me feel? - First of all I couldn't believe that it was even being entertained, then when it became obvious that things were serious then I began to feel a sense of devastation and powerlessness.

Glenn Albrecht from the University of Newcastle has given this condition a name - Solastalgia. The diagnosis of solastalgia is based on the recognition of the distress within an individual or a community about the loss of 'endemic sense of place' and the loss of a sense of control of its destiny. I suspect that solastalgia can be diagnosed in people along the length and breadth of the Murray Darling Basin and in all the drought effected areas across the nation.
In areas affected by prolonged drought desolation to both farmers and the landscape occurs. Research undertaken on the mental health aspects of the drought have concluded that it is not just large scale landscape change (loss of vegetation, dust storms, dead animals, starving animals etc), it is also smaller scale events like the loss of a much loved farmhouse garden that finally trip people over into solastalgically induced depression and illness[1]. Similar situations occur when citizens and communities experience severe impacts from man made activities like open cut mining. Dust, noise, machines, explosions and pollution all have their effects and a once much loved landscape can be dramatically transformed by such activity. Research in Australia conducted by Glenn Albrecht and colleagues has found clear connections between the loss of ecosystem health and felt declines in both physical and mental health of those affected by large scale industrial activity.

Some of you will know that I have been an advocate for wetlands and as a Land and Water Australia Community Fellow I have travelled around Australia sharing stories about the Milang wetlands and snipe sanctuary.

Most of the time I have been sharing the message with community and landholder groups who are already working locally to care for their own wetland areas. ‘I have seen communities taking back the power, they value the ecosystem services provided by native vegetation, recognise the importance of environmental flows in our rivers, and reward their locals for environmental stewardship. This type of activity is the cure for solastalgia.

Individuals are empowered through acknowledging things that need to be confronted. A commitment to engage in action to cooperate with and support distressed people and heal distressed environments is itself a profoundly healing act. As was found in the British context of foot and mouth disease, engagement in human support networks is an important counter to the solastalgic distress caused by various forms of disaster.

Our river is in a state of crisis.
Our future depends on its wise management.
We must shatter the myths about our water and let our wetlands and the environment have a fair share
We must let our rivers run.
I am asking you to stand up for the environment.
I'm asking you all to fight
Our generation can leave a legacy of living rivers and healthy landscapes
But it will take a commitment from each and every one of us to bring about change. You'll feel better for taking action - I know that I do
Yes we can make a difference
We already have.