Unnatural River, Unnatural Floods? Regulation and Responsibility on the Murray River in the 1950s

I have read the reports in your newspaper of the recent flooding', wrote Geoff L. Harrison, Executive Engineer of the River Murray Commission (RMC), to the Border Morning Mail in 1958 ('Flood Control' pt. 2).'[A]nd', he continued, 'because of reported inaccurate statements regarding this flood and some misconceptions regarding floods generally, I feel that the following facts should be placed on record'.Harrison was responding to claims by farmers that the Hume Dam, operated by the Commission, had caused recent floods on the Murray River.He denied that water releases had exacerbated floods for those below the dam: 'statements that the gates were raised, allowing large volumes of water to escape, or that it was a "man-made" flood, are inaccurate as no stored water was released'.He argued that floods had occurred 'from time immemorial', and that when river flow was 'too large to be contained in the channel it spreads over its own floodplain'.He criticised negative press reports that 'abuse the river (or some convenient authority) for the destruction it has wrought' ('Flood Control' pt. 2).Harrison's position was that floods were 'natural' occurrences, dams and officials should not be blamed; but they were.Harrison's strong defence of dams highlights significant changes in people's understandings about the river in flood with and without dams.The Murray River, like many rivers in Australia, has flooded (and dried up) intermittently since well before European settlement.The evolution of complex floodplain ecologies along the river attests to this.In the period since colonisation, those living along the river had experienced a number of large floods, for example in 1870, 1917 and 1927.However, the building of large dams and other regulatory structures brought changes to both the environment and understandings of floods and the river.What does it mean that floods could be seen as 'man-made'?What does this tell us about changing understandings of the Murray at a time when its flows were rapidly being regulated through large dams and other structures?1 This paper uses the measurements, monetary values and currency quoted in primary sources, except where conversions to contemporary units and values have been necessary for comparison or clarity.