Running Rivers October 17, 2006
I’ve been watching 2 Men in a Tinnie on the ABC. Actually I’ve been recording it and finally got around to watching it this afternoon. I’ll watch the last one live tonight.
The premise of the show is that John Doyle (aka Rampaging Roy Slavin) and Tim Flannery (of Weathermakers fame) travel along the Murray-Darling river system from the beginning of the Darling River in Queensland to the end of the Murray in South Australia in a little tin dinghy. The reality is that they can sail along very little of the Darling. The Murray is better, but it’s beset by its own issues.
The story they tell of the use and misuse of water in our country is very sad to see. The demand for water from the Darling for agriculture, such as cotton farming on Cubby Station, has led to the demise of historic sheep stations and is threatening the survival of small communities downriver. In a country as drought prone as Australia it seems criminal to take large quantities of water for agricultural practices which must be questionable (large ponds for irrigation just sitting there evaporating in the Queensland sun), leaving people downstream to survive on bore water while their children try to swim in the stagnant river.
When I see things like this I can’t help but wonder when we will realise that it’s just not feasible for us to grow everything here. We’d be better using our water to protect our environment and supply our average people. Do we need to be the world’s biggest producer of cotton? Do we need to grow rice?
It’s not something I pretend to understand. I don’t have a grasp of the political issues around it all, nor can I claim to understand the point of view of the big agriculturalists involved. All I know is that what we have done and what we are doing now is not working and there has to be a better way to do things.
There seems to be so much inertia with all these issues. Like turning the proverbial ship.
hi nicky. i can’t comment on Baby 2’s blog. I like all the shortlisted names. Willa is v. cute for a girl. Lucy (Lucinda) is really nice too. Astin, I hadn’t heard of before, stands out for me on the boys’ list.
(I like Austin for a boy, but maybe a bit too Americana.)
Howdy, I wasn’t going to chime in on the names cos i figure it’s pretty personal… but since Kristen has… I also really like Lucinda and/or Lucy and I like Austin too which is what I thought of when I read Astin. My favourite from your list though was Beck. It’s simple, quirky, and I think a lot of names seem to create a gender quandry now so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.
I’m happy to have comments on the naming thing - wouldn’t have posted it otherwise. I like Beck because it fits the things I like for boys’ names - simple and distinctive. I tend to prefer single syllable names for boys … don’t know why. I like Austin, but couldn’t go for it because of Austin Powers and I like the meaning of Astin - starlike. I do like Lucy, but I’ve developed an emotional attachment to Leila, so it’s a dilemma.