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The Murray River is Australia's second-longest river in its own right (the longest being its tributary the Darling). The 3370 kilometre long combined Murray-Darling river system drains most of inland Victoria, New South Wales, and southern Queensland. The 2500-kilometer Murray proper rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains. Carrying only a small fraction of the water of comparably-sized rivers in other parts of the world, and with a great annual variability of its flow, in its natural state it has even been known to dry up completely in drought years. For most of its length, the Murray meanders its way across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it wanders to the northwest, before turning south for its final 500 kilometres or so into South Australia. It supplies much of Adelaide's domestic water supply.
The first Europeans to see the river were the explorers Hume and Hovell in 1824: Hume named it after himself. In 1830 Captain Charles Sturt reached the river after travelling down its tributary the Murrumbidgee River and named it the Murray in honour of the then British Secretary of State for the Colonies Sir George Murray, not realising it was the same river that Hume and Hovell had encountered further upstream. Sturt continued down the remaining length of the Murray to finally reach Lake Alexandrina and the river's mouth.
In the 19th centuryAlternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical ( 18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801- 1900. Events The Little Ice Age ended the river used to support a substantial commercial steamboat trade, but the unreliable levels made it impossible for boats to compete with the railways and later road transport. However, the river still carries pleasure boats along its entire length. During the 20th century19th century 20th century 21st century more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901- 2000 in the sense of the Gre a large number of dams were constructed in the river's headwaters, including the Hume DamThe Hume Dam is a dam in Australia, east of Albury-Wodonga, on the Murray River just downstream of its junction with the Mitta River, and when at full capacity banking water nearly 40 kilometres up both river valleys. The small towns of Tallangatta and Bo, Dartmouth DamDartmouth Dam is a large dam on the Mitta River in north-eastern Victoria, creating the artificial Lake Dartmouth storing water from the Victorian "High Country" for summer release into the Mitta (and the downstream Lake Hume) and subsequently into the gr, and the complex dam and pipeline system of the Snowy Mountains SchemeThe Snowy Mountains Scheme was a massive water diversion and storage scheme, diverting water from the eastern slopes of the Australian Alps (part of the Great Dividing Range) in northern Victoria and southern New South Wales through pipes and tunnels into. These dams inverted the patterns of the river's natural flow from the original winter-spring flood and summer-autumn dry to the present low level through winter and higher during summer. These changes ensured the availability of water for irrigation and made the Murray Valley Australia's most productive agricultural region, but have seriously disrupted the life cycles of many ecosystems both inside and outside the river, and the irrigation has led to dryland salinity that now threatens the agricultural industries.
Dead and dying River Red Gum s on the lower Murray near Berri, South Australia.
The disruption of the river's natural flow, runoff from agricultureFarming, ploughing rice paddy, in Indonesia Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). Agriculture is also known as farming ., and the introduction of pest species like the European Carp has led to serious environmental damage along the river's length and to concerns that the river (and thus Adelaide's water and the irrigation water) will be unusably salty in the medium to long term. Efforts to alleviate the problems proceed but political infighting between various interest groups stalls progress.
