Editor's Jottings

There have been some positive notes in the record of this month in Milang. There have been two significant events— the passing through of the Tour Down Under with its associated Challenge ride and the successful hosting of the fourteenth annual Yesterday’s Power Rally.

These events have been significant in that they attracted visitors to our town for activities which were not dependant on the lake.

As a community we should give a vote of hearty thanks to all those volunteers who made Milang’s involvement in these events such a success.

However, we cannot ignore the fact that the situation in the Lakes and the Lower Murray River is quite desperate, and the attempt to remind the Prime Minister about this at the Federal Government Community Cabinet Meeting ran into some obstacles.

We continue to be frustrated that the much heralded national management of the Murray-Darling Basin has not yet replaced the ad hoc tinkering with the results of previous mismanagement rather than going to the heart of the problem.

There was, however, one glimmer of hope on this front when the Premiers of NSW and SA released a joint statement which announced that some of the Darling River’s flood waters would be allowed to flow down to our part of the system.

This is great news but it does not mean that it is no longer necessary to tell the story of our River and its associated Wetlands. The observance of World Wetlands Day on the 2nd February is a most appropriate occasion to refocus on this significant part of our environment in Milang and its importance for the future, not only of Milang, but of the
whole of Australia.