Cry me a river

Banrock Station's conservation ethos stretches beyond its physical boundaries.

It might seem strange to feel sorry for a river, but you'd be a hard-hearted type if you couldn't sympathise with the plight of Australia's River Murray.

Often referred to as the mighty Murray, the Murray-Darling catchment covers a million square kilometres, or 14 per cent of Australia, stretching into all the eastern states and seeping into the Southern Ocean via Lake Alexandrina south of Adelaide.

But this friendly giant is seriously ill.

Aboriginal groups have known this complex river system for more than 40,000 years, and since European settlement in the 1800s the river has become part of Australian folklore.

For settlers and swagmen, lumberjacks and farmers, bush poets and bushrangers, the river was an artery into the arid, undeveloped interior.

With settlement, the river system that had evolved over 65 million years was called on to fulfil human demands for irrigation and land. In a geological millisecond, dams, locks and weirs were constructed, and millions of people came to depend upon the river, either directly or indirectly.

Sadly, the life-giving river was having its own life slowly sucked away. Riverine ecosystems that relied on natural cycles were destroyed by changes in flow and vegetation clearance, and salinity and rising water tables remain major problems.

But the fact that so many lives depend on a healthy river might be what saves the Murray. It's now both a political and an environmental issue, with government involved at all levels. Private individuals and companies are also helping to restore the balance.

One of these is Banrock Station in South Australia, and if the name sounds familiar it's probably because you've seen it on a bottle of decent Shiraz, Merlot or Chardonnay.

You'll find Banrock Station Wines in the heart of the Riverland region, the largest wine-producing area in Australia. Surprisingly though, there are few cellar doors, probably because this is an area of mass-production rather than boutique wineries.

Banrock Station is an exception. Its cellar door is the Wine & Wetland Centre, where you can sample good wine and linger over a lunch while overlooking a restored wetland.

In 2002 this wetland earned the winery a Ramsar award for the sustainable use of wetland resources, the first time this prestigious international conservation award had been given to an Australian company.

When the property was acquired, it mirrored the problems along much of the Murray. A century of timber felling, stock grazing and rabbit damage had degraded the bush and wetland systems, and locks had interfered with the natural wet and dry cycles on the floodplains.

In co-operation with Landcare and Wetland Care Australia, the property has had an environmental makeover, with pest control and the replanting of native vegetation reducing soil erosion and providing safe habitats for native animals.

Most importantly, Banrock Station has re-established the wetting and drying patterns of the river, flooding the lagoons in spring and allowing them to dry out over the rest of the year.

This has attracted many species of birds and wetland creatures, which visitors can enjoy on self-guided walks around the property. Eight kilometres of trails and boardwalks cover wetland, floodplain and mallee - the Aboriginal name for the stubby, multi-stemmed eucalypt that dominated the area before agricultural development. Interpretative boards give information on geology, flora and fauna, and human involvement, including the current use of the land for viticulture and eco-tourism.

Banrock's conservation ethos stretches beyond its physical boundaries. Money from every wine sale is donated to wetland conservation in countries where its wine is available, including New Zealand. Projects that have benefited here include the Manawatu Estuary Trust, Karori Sanctuary and the Te Henga Wetland on the Waitakere River.

Banrock also supports wetlands in developing countries, with its Ramsar prize purse going to a cause in Kenya.

It's only a drop in the barrel of what's required, but after wandering through reinvigorated mallee country accompanied by the sound of shrieking parrots, and stepping softly along a boardwalk to watch waterfowl from a bird hide, I'm sold on the idea of drinking wine to save a wetland.

Checklist

Getting there

Qantas flies direct to Adelaide on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

It takes 4hrs 15mins.

Banrock Station is 200km north-east of Adelaide via the Sturt Highway.

The nearest accommodation is at Berri, 25 minutes drive away.

Eating

Banrock Station serves light lunches.

In Berri, try the award-winning Mallee Fowl Restaurant, named after the endangered bird.

It's in an old shearing shed packed with Australiana.

Ph (0061) 8 8582 2583.

Further information

For information on South Australia contact the South Australia Tourism Commission, (09) 914 9848, email info@satc.co.nz.

Banrock Station is on the web. See link below.

Information about the campaign to restore the Murray system is on link below.

* Heather Ramsay was a guest of Tourism Australia & Qantas.