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| Young red gum forest, close to the Murray River. Photo: Urszula Dawkins |
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| What is a Biosphere Reserve? |
| Where is the reserve? |
| What does it look like? |
| Interpretive Centre |
| Virtual Biosphere |
| Explore the Biosphere |
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The Barkindji Biosphere Reserve covers intact areas of Murray River wetlands, red gum and box forests, mallee, scrublands and salt lakes.Other parts of the Reserve have been degraded by grazing and poor irrigation practices. UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program recognises the importance of rehabilitation of degraded landscapes as a very important conservation contribution of biosphere reserves. The Murray River is at least 60 million years old. The volume of water that travels down the Murray is low by world standards – its average flow is about 16 per cent of that of the Nile and about 0.25 per cent of the Amazon. Its flow is highly variable and many native plants and animals have developed unusual mechanisms to survive in this challenging environment. Flow levels and variations have been severely modified by the weirs and dams created along the Murray and its tributaries since European settlement.
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