Darling+River+Cruise

Menindee Catchment, Darling River Cruise

After the Floods, most rivers in and around Broken Hill had been full, so we set off for a cruise in the Darling River in Menindee. This flood was the worst flood since the flood in 1976, luckily there was good management of this flood and so not as many people were hurt. The amount of water did bring back the wildlife, like carp and yabbies, which the town needs because they sell carps to Asia. The two main indigenous groups of the area believe that the Snake of the dreamtime created the river. Menindee was built by the Darling River even before Broken Hill was founded. On the day that we were on this cruise the water level was about 8 metres when it’s usually only 4 metres. The water that this gives the surrounding land helps with grazing and therefore helps with crops and gives the farmers and town’s people more income. The affects the flooding have on the community is also wide. Because of the amount of crops and things people have more things to do and have less stress because of the drought. There’s a lower suicide rate because of this and there’s 90% less vandalism. As the River Cruise man said, “Without water we’ve got nothing!” The only things that the boat man said were the negatives were the drowning that occurred because of the floods and the mosquitoes, which there are masses of around the river. Prior to the 2011 floods, the trees had less water. In 1946- 1961 the community was building flood gates so that they could manage the water system, this helped a lot with the river overflow. So basically there are the positives of the floods: Grazing brings more money to employ people. The water was too cheap for too long, the water brings proper irrigation.
 * Prime Production
 * Growing crops
 * Extra money
 * Employ 3-400 people

These are the negatives:
 * Mental health problems
 * Stock dying
 * Things are more expensive and people can’t afford them
 * Suicide in rural areas

When we heard these facts, we decided to look a bit more into it, you'll find more facts on the sub page "Suicide rates.