We’re a movement of everyday people across Australia standing up for healthy rivers and healthy communities.

We campaign for the big, bold changes our rivers need and bring communities together – up and down the river, in the city and the country – to influence governments to act.

Act as a trusted voice and influential advocate to decision-makers

Create policy solutions to return water to rivers, restore the environment and support First Nations water justice

Support a diverse movement of people speaking up for healthy rivers and water justice

Conservation councils in the Basin states have been campaigning for healthy rivers for many decades. In 2022 we decided to form a new national alliance, and 18 months later we secured our first big win for the environment.

The ‘Restoring Our Rivers’ Act, passed in late 2023, broke through years of stalled progress.  It delivered a vital lifeline for the rivers, all thanks to powerful advocacy and thousands of Australians across the Basin speaking up to demand action.

We played a central role in supporting cross-party negotiations to strengthen and pass the legislation, securing the delivery of long-promised environmental water, improved accountability, and a pathway to recognition of First Nations’ water rights. Thousands of people joined the campaign, sharing their stories, signing petitions and emailing and meeting with politicians. It culminated with a trip to Parliament House with 24 river advocates from across the Basin to make sure decision-makers heard our demands!

But while this legislation was a step in the right direction, we have a huge job ahead of us to secure the river’s long-term health. The Basin Plan is being reviewed in 2026. This is a critical opportunity and we’ll be pushing for the big, bold changes that are needed to restore a flourishing river system for us all.

In 2022, in the lead up to the 10th anniversary of the Federal Government’s Murray-Darling Basin Plan, a few of us sat down on the banks of the Darling-Baaka River to talk about what was needed to return Australia’s biggest river system to health.

Many of us were involved in helping secure the original Plan off the back of the devastating Millennium Drought. But we had seen this vision eroded year after year. Governments didn’t deliver on their policies, and a handful of well-funded corporate interests lobbied to undermine the Plan and rig the rules in their favour. 

To turn this story around we knew we had to work in a way that was much bigger and bolder than what we had been doing before.

We needed a national voice that brought in communities right along the river and that was loud enough to combat these vested interests. By working together, we would be a more powerful force to win the changes our rivers so desperately need. 

So we decided to create a new Alliance of state environmental peak bodies, working across state lines to shift the narrative on water politics in the Basin. And so the Murray-Darling Conservation Alliance was born.