Birds are back, crops are growing – but is the Murray Darling Basin plan working?

The Margooya Lagoon, on the Murray River in north-west Victoria. The $13bn plan to save the river system is now 10 years old. Photograph: Tim Herbert/Environmental Justice Australia

After nearly a decade of declining bird numbers, the internationally protected Macquarie marshes experienced one of its best migratory bird breeding seasons this year, raising hopes that the Murray Darling Basin plan is beginning to produce environmental dividends.

At the same time, food and fibre farming in the vast basin has grown to $22bn a year, despite the drought of 2018 to 2019 and the buybacks of water entitlements from agriculture.