Lake Eyre Basin Rivers

Richard Kingsford is Professor of Environmental Science and the Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science, UNSW Australia. He has a background in freshwater science and conservation biology. He has a great passion for the people and environments of the Lake Eyre Basin, from his involvement in the region stretching back to the mid-1980s. He has served on many government committees concerned with the Lake Eyre Basin, including the Cooper Creek Catchment Committee, the Community Advisory Committee, the Lake Eyre Basin Scientific Advisory Panel and the Western Rivers Advisory Panel. He loves the rivers, their ecosystems, including the plants, animals and ‘invisible’ organisms that make the place hum and, of course, the people of the Lake Eyre Basin.

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Contributing authors


Section 1: Natural history and ecology of the Lake Eyre Basin

1: The Lake Eyre Basin – one of the world’s great desert river systems

2: Water – where, when, how much? Challenges in understanding and managing flow in rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin

3: Fish distribution, status and threats in the rivers and springs of the Queensland Lake Eyre Basin

4: Natural flows drive the ‘boom and bust’ ecology of fish in Cooper Creek, an arid-zone floodplain river

5: Turtles of Cooper Creek – life in the slow lane

6: Developing the desert: potential effects on wildlife


Section 2: Cultural and socio-economic dimensions of the rivers

7: Connecting the champions of the Lake Eyre Basin Rivers

8: Looking after the rivers – a view from nearly 50 000 years of experience

9: Caring for our sacred waterways: learning from our past

10: River sustainability – essential for the livelihoods of landholders

11: Clean green beef – the importance of free-flowing rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin

12: A life living between a river and a creek

13: Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, not just a wildlife paradise but an economic lifeline

14: When our rivers ran dry – 30 years of water resource development in the Murray-Darling Basin

15: A river and a livelihood – all but lost in a decade

16: Making a living from the Macquarie Marshes – coping with decisions upstream

17: 'Once more into the breach, dear friends…' – the ongoing battle for the Cooper

18: Wetland health in the Lake Eyre Basin – an economic perspective

19: Mining and the Lake Eyre Basin environment: past, present and possible futures


Section 3: Looking after the rivers

20: Sustainable management of the Lake Eyre Basin Rivers – regulate, educate or open the gate?

21: Water governance in Queensland: implications for wild rivers declarations in the Lake Eyre Basin

22: Sustainability for the rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin


Index