Australian Landforms Summative 2

Australian Landforms

Murray River

Lehansa Amithirigala

01

Where is the Murray River located?

What parts of the River Murray are natural? Are there any man-made parts?

02

What is the water source for the Murray River? Does it connect with any other rivers?

03

04

Has the length or width of the river changed over time, if so how much? Does the water level change?

Index

SPICESS Questions

05

Does the river have positive or negative effects on the enviroment and it's animals?

How many people live around the River Murray?

06

07

What is the distance between the Murray River and the second largest river in Australia?

Where is the Murray River located?

Space

The River Murray is located in South-Eastern Australia. Passing through New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria the river crosses through cities such as Renmark, Albury, Swan hill, Mildura and Murray bridge. Being Australia's longest, the River Murray streatches just over 1,500km.

Coordinates of the River Murray

What parts of the River Murray are natural? Are there any man-made parts?

Place

The Murray river is the third longest navigable river in the world and is a natural occurance in nature. Although the river itself is natural there have been many installments to make the waterway much more accessible and innovative. Some of these features are bridges, locks, dams or weirs.

• A lock is a device that is used in rivers, it is used for lowering boats onto different levels of water levels within waterways.

• A Dam is a wall-like structure that is used in many rivers. The main purpose of a dam is to hold water back, this can be for many reasons, some being:

- Flood prevention - Storing water - Hydropower

• A weir is a structure that is placed inside of a river. Like a Dam but smaller a weir is a barrier used to control water flow.

Click on those

dams

Bridges

Locks & WEirs

What is the water source for the Murray River? Does it connect with any other rivers?

Interconnection

In an average year around 75 percent of the water taken from the Murray river is used for farming, but where does all this water come from? The Australian Alps. The Murray river starts near Mount Kosciuszko in the Australian Alps, where the water source for the Murray river is found. The Murray river connects with the Darling river; Australia's second longest river. The Murray river and the Darling river make up the Murray-Darling basin. The Murray Darling basin is a water system with water flowing through a large system of interconnected rivers, the largest rivers are the Murray and Darling.

Has the length or width of the river changed over time, if so how much? Does the water level change?

Change

Although it sounds untrue the Murray river's length and width has not been known to have changed over the years. However the course of the river had changed, in result of an uplift of land 25,000 years ago. Even though the dimensions of the river aren't changing there has been changes going on throughout the river; the waterlevels. The waterlevels in the Murray river is known to be changing all the time, these changes can be based off of rainfall, seasonal change, evaporation and demand of water. Some other reasons for change of the level of water in the Murray river are snow melting, input of surrownding rivers and overuse of water.

Does the river have positive or negative effects on it's surroundings?

Environment

The Murray river has many positive features within and around it; helping humans and the wildlife. The only negative effects of the Murray river are the negative actions, that have been done by humans.

Positives +

negatives -

What can be done to protect the Murray River?

Sustainability

How to protect the Murray river:

• Restore the National Water Commission

• Provide appropriate funding for Nations to buy water instead of taking the Murray river's

• License all floodplain harvesting; to prevent overuse of water supply

• Prevent redirection of environmental water to other uses; stop all private non-licensed use of Murray river water

• Stop pollution

There are also many other ways to help the Murray river flourish, all people need to do is play their part.

How much water from the Murray river is used for irrigation in Australia?

Scale

With an annual average of 3,780GL, irrigation takes a large toll on the volume of water in the Murray river. This large amount of water is used to irrigate around 470,000 hectares of farming land in Australia. To collect this substantial amount of water, farmers use water pumps. These pumps are installed onto the riverbed and connect to water tanks. The farmers later connect their tanks to various different kinds of irrigation machines, to help water crops. Some types of irrigation used by farmers