Eucalypts such as red gums and coolibah get their feet wet and grow. Water-holding frogs emerge from underground cocoons. Native fish stream onto the floodplains to breed. In March last year on Cooper Creek in central Australia, fish numbers increased from about 10 to 20 tonnes in their waterholes to 11,000 to 15,000 tonnes when the flood covered 6,000 square kilometres. More than 40,000 ibis, egrets and herons bred when the Macquarie Marshes flooded late last year.
Wetlands are the major casualties of water resource development.
Their water is captured by our dams and diverted. The world over, rivers and their wetlands are turning to drylands. The most notorious example is the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, one of the world's worst environmental disasters. Australia's list includes the internationally recognised Barmah-Millewa Forest, Chowilla floodplain, Macquarie Marshes and the Gwydir watercourse, where plant and animal numbers have declined. Predicted reductions in river flows from climate change will exacerbate the problem.