the extent of water flowing into the stricken murray river between may and august was the low for that month in the 117 years that records have been kept . an exceptional famine has hurled the rivers ecosystem into decline , according to the guardian for the country . " we ' ve had big catastrophes before and big storms before , but that we didn ' t have was water impact , " suggested rob freeman , the chief executive of the murray - darling catchment authority .
The Murray-Darling Basin is in Australia.