the amount of water falling into the stricken murray river between september and november was the lower for that quarter in the 117 years that records have been kept . an unprecedented drought has threw the stream system into decline , unknown to the guardian for the river . " we ' ve had large wildfires before and biggest floods before , but what we didn ' t have was a change , " said rob freeman , the chief executive of the murray - darling valley authority .
the down - river estuary is in australia .