Residents celebrate as waters meet 70km north of Wentworth, but more rain is needed to ease drought

Waters of Murray-Darling rivers join for first time in two years

The waters of the Murray River and the Darling River in NSW have joined for the first time in two years, in a milestone for drought-stricken communities in New South Wales.

Water flowing down the Darling joined water backed up from the Murray River around 5.30pm on Sunday evening about 90km upstream from Wentworth in NSW.

Sheep farmer and wine grape grower Mat Robertson, 50, witnessed the waters join at the edge of his property, Ashvale Station, on Sunday evening and had a small celebration.

On Monday morning he said he “had a bit of a headache”.

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“Most people are just happy to see a healthy river,” he told Guardian Australia. “There have been no flows for two years. Just to see fresh water flowing through the system – who wouldn’t be happy about that?”

Robertson watched as isolated pools were flushed by water as it flowed down the Darling River, which is the boundary of his property.

“It pushed the green stuff out and then you have this muddy looking beautiful water. For all the dry land farmers from here to Queensland – we all have a boundary fence again.

“Without water, everyone’s stock has been just going where it wants because there’s no river to stop them.”

The chief executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Phillip Glyde, told Guardian Australia: “The two arms of the Murray-Darling were reunited on Sunday evening, bringing with it the first decent flows since August 2018.

“We’ve been watching this water light up communities as it makes its way down the Darling, and it’s great to see it finally join the Murray. These flows are bringing relief to everyone and everything in its path.”

Josh Sheard, who owns the hotel at Pooncarie, got up at 6.45am to watch the river, dry for 18 months, fill with water as it passed his pub. Photograph: Josh Sheard

Josh Sheard is the owner of the Pooncarie Hotel, about 70km upstream from Ashvale Station.

He got up at 6.45am on 7 April to watch the river – dry for 18 months – fill with water as it passed his pub.

“I didn’t want to miss it,” he said. “Without the water we’ve got no fishers or caravaners. For the last two years we’ve been way down on trade.”

The water’s arrival is bitter sweet for Sheard, who said a healthy river would have signalled the start of a revival in trade, “but Covid-19 has put a bit of a spanner in the works”.

The coronavirus pandemic measures have restricted the pub to just take-away alcohol and meals but “there’s only so much a town of 40 can drink”, Sheard said.

“It’s wonderful to see the water, but without the people that would have been here, it’s just created a very local buzz.”

The Murray and Darling rivers’ true meeting place is in the town of Wentworth. Its deputy mayor, Tim Elstone, said on Monday lunchtime the water still had about 70km to run until it met the Murray.

“It’s not reached all the way through yet – we’ll expect it Thursday or Friday – but we’re all happy, no worries about that,” he said.

The severe drought has hit farmers and communities hard. Hundreds of thousands of native fish have died in multiple kills over the past 18 months.

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Bushfires in river catchments created further problems, as when rains did come, they flushed sediment and ash into rivers. Ecologists have said the drought, fires and floods have caused a crisis for Australia’s rivers.

Last week, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority said while the water was bringing a smile to people’s faces, there was a long way to go until the drought was over.

Basin storages were rising, but the persistent rain of recent weeks had not seen storage levels rise as high as some had expected.

The authority’s executive director of river management, Andrew Reynolds, said: “The picture of the last 36 months is that virtually the entire basin has had below-average or record-low rainfall overall, so making up for that will take a lot more rain.”

Between 390bn and 420bn litres was expected to flow into the Menindee Lakes, which was great news for locals and farmers, he said.

In a statement on Sunday, the NSW water minister, Melinda Pavey, said the Barwon-Darling system had received its best natural flows since the floods of 2016.

She said: “We mustn’t be fooled into thinking this brings these regions out of drought. It’s going to take more rain over the coming months to really take the pressure off these areas.”