A wet winter across the southern Murray Darling Basin has lifted flows into South Australia’s River Murray to about 22.5 gigalitres a day, the highest level the state has seen since flooding in 2022-23. The Department for Environment and Water said the river had looked pretty dry at the start of the calendar year, then swung hard the other way as runoff surged in from the basin. The department expects flows to ease at the end of August before rising again in September.
Who Feels the River First
Tasha Morath, who has dived into the River Murray every day for about seven years, said the stronger current has made her morning swim harder. “I can definitely feel the resistance at the moment but there are still really good conditions still for fishing, boating, kayaking, skiing and all those sorts of things,” she said. That’s the lived side of the numbers: a river managed, measured and reported from above, while people in it deal with the current itself.
Morath also said, “I just enjoy watching the pelicans come and go and they're happy at the moment. There's plenty of fish, probably carp, jumping in the water at the moment.” The river’s movement, in other words, isn’t just a line in a department update. It’s the daily reality for people who use it, and for the animals moving through it too.
The Department Watches, the River Moves
The current flow is a sharp contrast with August in the previous two years, when the Department for Environment and Water announced flows of 8 gigalitres a day in 2025 and 4 gigalitres in 2024. Damian Rowley, a DEW water delivery manager, said South Australia had not seen flows this significant since flooding in 2022-23. He said the rainfall had been significant, even though this year’s flows were not close to flood levels.
“This increased flow has been a big improvement because it was looking pretty dry at the start of this calendar year,” Rowley said. “Increased flows are good environmentally; it's got benefits for fish, frogs and flood plain connection.” The department’s language is careful, technical, and tidy. The river, meanwhile, answers to weather, tributaries and gravity, not bureaucratic optimism.
Rowley said the department updates the flow report weekly and expects the river to recede in the coming weeks before another boom heading into spring. “This most recent rainfall event across the Victorian tributaries will see us increase again through early September,” he said. The state apparatus keeps score. The water keeps coming and going on its own terms.
What People Actually Do With It
Brenton Carle, owner and operator of Canoe the Riverland, said the higher water came as a surprise given the forecast El Niño weather event. “The level of the river has gone up by probably 15 or 20 centimetres, which is fantastic for the ecosystem,” he said. “Turtles are breeding and laying eggs and everything's looking really good. You have your big yabby runs coming through, so there's lots of animals for the kids to catch.”
Carle said the higher flows also made it easier to run school camps in the backwaters of Renmark and Paringa. “When it starts to get a bit higher, it's actually really good because it opens up creeks that we normally can't get through,” he said. “Teachers that come back year on year, they've seen droughts, they've seen floods, they've seen a bit of everything. When there's some good flows coming down, they know they can have a bit of an easier trip.”
That’s the practical side of a river system shaped by weather, state reporting and seasonal swings. The department issues the numbers. People adapt. Businesses plan around them. Kids catch yabbies. Teachers return year after year. And the river, after looking dry at the start of the calendar year, keeps moving through the machinery built around it.