The Murrumbidgee Region ranges from the high rainfall environments of the Murrumbidgee River's headwaters in the Snowy Mountains to the semi-arid regions in the west where it joins with the Murray River near Balranald. The catchment boundaries are roughly Cooma in the east, Baralnald in the west, north to Temora and south to Henty.
Due to the large size of the Murrumbidgee Catchment, it has within its boundaries a wide variety of rural and urban activities related to landcare. Land uses range from grazing to dairying, from broad acre cropping to irrigation, intensive agriculture and horticulture, to small area holdings and urban landholdings. People involved in Landcare in the Murrumbidgee range from high country graziers from Cooma to Canberra politicians; wheat farmers from Ardlethan to townspeople in urban centres such as Griffith and Wagga Wagga; from school children in Henty to Western Plains farmers in Balranald. Rice growers; vegetable and fruit growers, some of the finest wine producers in the world; agroforesters and carp fertiliser producers.
Area: 84,000 square kilometres
Length of river: 1,600 kilometres (approx.)
Land use: Grazing, Cereal Farming, Irrigation Farming, Urban, Horticulture, Forestry and Viticulture.
Major Centres: Cooma, Canberra, Tumut, Yass, Cootamundra, Wagga Wagga, Narrandera, Leeton, Griffith, Hay and Balranald.
Population: 520,000 (approx)
Number Landcare Groups: approximately 140 Landcare Groups
Number of members: approximately 2000
Issues faced: Salinity (dryland and irrigation), erosion (gully, sheet, rill, wind, and streambank) loss of remnant vegetation, high-watertables, bad water quality, noxious weeds, wetland management, feral animals, acid soils, aging rural population, increasing social issues related to land degradation, and general pollution from large urban areas.
