A public forum was presented by the Constitutional Centenary Foundation in association with the State Library of South Australia entitled The River Murray - Test Case for the Environment and the Constitution and held in the Institute Building of the State Library of South Australia.

The purpose of the forum was to explore how the River Murray, a key issue in the Adelaide session of the 1897-1898 Australasian Federal Convention, has remained a classic issue of relations between South Australia and the federal government. John Bannon, convenor of the SA Chapter of the Foundation, introduced Emeritus Professor John Lovering, President of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (1994-1999) who spoke to the topic The River Murray - constitutional solutions or complications.

Other speakers included Dr Barbara Hardy, scientist and environmentalist, who spoke to the topic Science, the environment and the constitution in collaboration; and Dr Chris Reynolds, senior lecturer in constitutional and environmental law at Flinders University, who spoke to the topic The environment and the constitution.

In the selections presented here Professor Lovering notes that salinity is not a new problem for the River Murray, discusses the way the waters of the Murray-Darling Basin have been managed in the past and the challenges of today such as dryland salinity.

Part 1 - Sturt finds water salty

Part 2 - Taking water from the Murray-Darling Basin

Part 3 - Dryland salinity