Variables considered within each set are listed in the appendix. The MurrayDarling Basin case is discussed in terms of these categories and variables in Section 8 below.

# **3. Methodology**

We pursued a case study approach for this project in order to examine closely the processes of institutional change as well as the current situation. A site visit was facilitated by an expert and active participant in water policy and management who arranged interviews and prepared a background paper on the basin prior to the visit (Haisman 2003). Background papers for all case study visits are based on a common outline. During the site visit, team members met with and interviewed 20 individuals, including basin-level stakeholders, past and current central and local government officials, past and current Murray-Darling Basin Commission staff and members, and academic researchers with perspectives on government structure and water management in Australia.<sup>2</sup> The interviews were focused on understanding the processes of institutional origin and change and the performance of water management institutions at sub-basin, basin, state, and national scales, matters that were closely within the knowledge of the interviewees. After the visit, team members combined their notes from the interviews, revisited and revised the basin background paper, reviewed other materials, and composed this paper summarizing and analyzing the river basin management situation in the Murray-Darling Basin.

The following analysis of the Murray-Darling case is therefore based on a combination of sources—documentary materials on the basin and the various governmental and non-governmental organizations at work there, the background paper prepared for the visit, and the interviews conducted during the site visit. The findings and conclusions therefore do not represent the point of view of a single individual or organization, but emerge from a composite of data collected and reviewed by the research project team.

# **4. The Murray-Darling Basin**

Water resources are a major public issue in Australia because of their scarcity and extreme variability. Although the coastal fringes are relatively well endowed with water, and are therefore where most of the population resides, the interior is arid and water is very scarce, making Australia the driest inhabited continent on Earth. The MurrayDarling Basin<sup>3</sup> is an interior basin, taking its name from two dominant rivers, the Murray

> 2 Organizations from which individuals were interviewed were the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Government of Australia; Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Government of Australia; the Murray-Darling Basin Commission; Murray-Darling Basin Community Advisory Committee; River Murray Water; Department of Infrastructure, Planning, and Natural Resources, Government of New South Wales; Department of Sustainability and Environment, Government of Victoria; Albury Water; Goulburn Valley Water; Goulburn-Murray Water; Murray Irrigation Limited; Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority; Broken Catchment Committee; Australian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage; Water Services Association of Australia; Victorian Water Industry Association; and Victorian Farmers Federation.

> 3 See map at the beginning of the paper.

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