Reconstruction of historical riverine sediment production on the goldfields of Victoria, Australia

Davies, PE; Lawrence, Susan; Turnbull, Jodi; Rutherfurd, Ian; Grove, James; Silvester, Ewen; Baldwin, Darren S.; Macklin, Mark G.

doi:10.1016/j.ancene.2017.11.005

Cited by 36 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The Murray River has been subjected to anthropogenic stressors for over 150 years (Davies et al, ) with testimony to the impact of gold mining in the tributaries and domestic and stock waste presented to the Royal Commission into the state of the waters by 1900 (Davis, Murray, & Burchell, ). Irrigation commenced by the 1880s, and river regulation, to facilitate navigation, enabled a substantial increase in water abstraction through the 20th century.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restoring Murray River floodplain wetlands: Does the sediment record inform on watering regime?

Gell

2019

River Research & Apps

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The floodplain wetlands of the southern Murray Darling Basin (MDB) have been subject to the impacts of catchment and water resource development for more than a century. Their current degraded state is attributed to the regulation of the rivers and abstraction of water volume for irrigation. The MDB Plan is to return at least 2,750 Gl of mean annual flow to the system to restore the condition of waterways.Considerable recent investment in infrastructure enables water to be released into the basin's floodplain wetlands. The proposed watering regime is underpinned by modelling that suggests that, before regulation, overbank flows would have occurred regularly as discharge peaked in winter and spring. Sediment cores have been extracted from over 50 floodplain wetlands of the southern Murray Basin. Those from several, large meander wavelength billabongs extend for 1,000-5,000 years suggesting that these sites were permanently inundated over that time. Others extend to~200 years and are presumed not to have accumulated sediment until more recently. The records of most wetlands, however, only extend to the onset of river regulation in the 1920s, suggesting that before then they were not inundated for sufficient duration for net accumulation to occur. Preserved diatoms suggest that the shallow, plant-dominated wetlands of the past have transitioned to deep, turbid water systems today. As rivers are identified as a source of sediment to wetlands, less regular inundation, rather than more, is a viable option in restoring the ecological function of these floodplain wetlands and in slowing sediment infill.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restoring Murray River floodplain wetlands: Does the sediment record inform on watering regime?

Gell

2019

River Research & Apps

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“…It is well recognized that European occupation initiated gullying in the MDB. Less well recognized is the sometimes catastrophic effect of gold mining on the geomorphology and water quality of the River Murray and its tributaries, particularly the Victorian tributaries (Upper Murray, Kiewa, Ovens, Campaspe, and Loddon Rivers) (Davies, Lawrence et al, ). There was also substantial historical gold mining on the NSW inland slopes in the headwaters of the Murrumbidgee, Lachlan and Upper Murray tributaries.…”

Section: Chronology and Description Of Human Impacts On Suspended Sedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human impacts on suspended sediment and turbidity in the River Murray, South Eastern Australia: Multiple lines of evidence

Rutherfurd

Kenyon

Thoms

et al. 2020

River Research & Apps

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European settlement has led to increased loads of fine suspended sediment (SS) entering the River Murray, Australia's largest, and arguably, most important river. The River Murray's anthropogenic sediment history can be divided into four periods with varying source areas, sediment loads, and seasonal patterns. The Aboriginal period (before 1840) was characterized by clear water at summer low-flows in the River Murray and its southern tributaries, with more sediment coming from the northern catchment than the southern, and the Darling River being turbid at all flows. There is little evidence that Aboriginal burning resulted in any measurable increase in SS. SS loads peaked in the 1870s and 1880s (the gold and gully period, 1850-1930) as valley floors were incised by gullies (mostly in northern tributaries), and gold sluicing flushed huge amounts of sludge into southern tributaries. Sedimentation in wetlands and on floodplains increased by 2-10 times in this period, and the biota in wetlands switched from clear water to turbid water communities.In the hiatus period sediment supply from gullies and gold mining waned and low flow SS concentrations returned to low levels. Dam construction through the 1960s and 1970s (the regulation period, 1960 on) disconnected the River Murray from catchment derived sediment. Despite this, SS levels increased again: now largely derived from instream sources including bank erosion from long duration summer irrigation flows, the spread of bottom-feeding carp (Cyprinus carpio), and wave erosion from boats. Erosion switched from winter to summer dominated. Significant investment in securing water for the environment in the Murray-Darling Basin could be complemented by addressing inchannel sediment sources in the River Murray itself to reduce turbidity. Overall, European era SS concentrations remain relatively low with small sediment delivery to the ocean (0.1Mt per annum), despite high catchment erosion rates. This is due to poor sediment delivery efficiency through the low-gradient landscape.

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“…The state of the Murray Darling Basin highlights many of these persistent and emerging threats. The Basin received 400 M m 3 of sediment from Victorian gold mining sluices between 1850 and 1880 [15] and so it suffers substantial legacy and ongoing (catchment erosion, riverbank collapse) impacts on water quality. While its waters were abstracted for (European) industrial use through the C19 th this increased substantially from the 1950s whereby up to 80% of flow was abstracted before recent interventions.…”

Section: The Murray Darling Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetland management: preparing for climate and coastal change using adaptation pathways

Gell

2020

E3S Web Conf.

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Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened in the world. The list of threatened species in freshwater ecosystems is greater than that in terrestrial or marine systems and freshwater vertebrates are particularly at risk. Freshwater wetlands have evolved in coastal zones protected from tidal influence by barrier dune systems. Similarly, estuaries have supported zones of low salinity diluted by flows from land, but water resource development has limited these flows and driven ecological change in estuarine systems. These historical uses of river flows, and the impacts of catchment development on water quality and yields, have combined to threaten coastal wetland ecosystems. They are now under increasing threat through climate change driven alterations to hydroclimatic conditions, as well an rising sea levels which risk inundation of low lying coastal regions, including wetlands. Coastal freshwater systems offer considerable ecosystem services to human systems and host significant biodiversity assets. These have been subjected to increased risk through catchment and coastal development, but are now acutely threatened through changed river flows and elevated sea levels that result from climate change. Managing these systems requires an adaptation pathways approach that accommodates human needs, and society’s obligations to global biodiversity.

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Reconstruction of historical riverine sediment production on the goldfields of Victoria, Australia

Cited by 36 publications

References 29 publications

Restoring Murray River floodplain wetlands: Does the sediment record inform on watering regime?

Restoring Murray River floodplain wetlands: Does the sediment record inform on watering regime?

Human impacts on suspended sediment and turbidity in the River Murray, South Eastern Australia: Multiple lines of evidence

Wetland management: preparing for climate and coastal change using adaptation pathways

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