Use of geophysics for the location of saline groundwater inflow to the Murray River east of Mildura

Abstract

The River Murray forms the border between New South Wales and Victoria, and crosses South Australia on the final part of its 1600 km route to the sea. The salinity of the Murray increases downstream, as is the case with most large rivers of the world. However, such salinity variations are not smooth. Gutteridge et al. (1970) noted that in one particular 4.5 km stretch of the river near Mildura, 80 tonnes of salt per day were entering the Murray from an unknown source. This was particularly apparent in drought years and attributed to the influx of saline groundwater. A closer look at this area forms the subject of this paper.