In Western Australia, Monsoons Bring Life to Brittle Land

Photos show stark changes from dry to wet season along the Margaret River

Article July 31, 2018 By: Tim Nicol Read time:

Projects: Protecting Australia's Nature

The Fitzroy River in Western Australia is one of the country’s last large free-flowing river systems. It is also the last known stronghold for critically endangered freshwater sawfish and is a centre of cultural life and biodiversity in the Kimberley—qualities that have earned it a spot on Australia’s National Heritage List.

However, the river is threatened by a push to extract water for agribusiness and mining. This includes a proposal to draw 50 billion litres of water a year from the Fitzroy’s largest tributary, the Margaret River, into a giant dam and to clear 8,000 hectares of land for irrigated agriculture, even though attempts to grow marketable plants on this land have largely failed.

Pew is working with local Traditional Owners who have strong rights over the lands around the river, and with recreational fishers, tourism operators, and other stakeholders to ensure the protection of the river and to promote river-friendly economic development.

In March, I visited leaders from the Gooniyandi Traditional Owners, whose lands are at the confluence of the Fitzroy and Margaret rivers. The Gooniyandi are one of nine tribes with traditional lands along the river. March is at the end of the wet season, and the Margaret River was full, but when I returned to the same location just two months later, it was nearly dry. This experience and the photos I took highlighted the boom-and-bust nature of the Fitzroy River.

The Fitzroy and its tributaries are usually dry for most of the year, running only during the November-April wet season that peaks from December through February.

As stunning and strong as these rivers appear in the wet season, they face grave threats from irrigation and mining. But those threats may not come to pass: The West Australian Government has proposed a national park and management plan that would balance conservation and sustainable development in this area.

I visited the Margaret River in March—a month or so after the last rain—and found it flowing wide, tranquil, and full of fish and freshwater crocodiles. I spotted a few wallabies and goanna monitor lizards up to 2 meters long along the shore.

This river and its estuaries also provide habitat for species such as the bull shark, a freshwater stingray, and critically endangered freshwater sawfish, whose numbers have declined by almost 70 per cent globally, making rare intact nurseries such as the Fitzroy and its tributaries crucial for its survival.

When I returned to the region in May, the changes were striking. The floodwaters had drained to the ocean, leaving mostly dry riverbeds along with small pools where life will hang on until the replenishing rains return—probably not for at least six hot and dry months.

The lands and waterholes flanking the river are important for at least 40 species of plants, which support riparian bird species such as the nationally endangered purple-crowned fairy-wren. The wetlands and billabongs at the river mouth and along the flood plain are habitat for internationally protected birds such as magpie geese and whistling duck.