From the borders with Victoria and New South Wales to the Murray Mouth, the Murray-Darling Basin comprises only 7% of the State, yet it is once of South Australia’s most productive agricultural regions. The South Australian Murray-Darling Basin NRM (SA MDB NRM) region can be divided into 5 distinct units: the river corridor, the Coorong and Lower Lakes, the Murray Mallee, the Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges and Murray Plains and the South Olary Plains.
Grazing of rangelands is a major land use of the SA MDB NRM region to the north of the River Murray. Adjacent to the River Murray, within part of the Mallee and Along the Eastern Mt Lofty Ranges, horticulture is a major land use consisting of wine grapes, citrus, stone fruit and vegetables. There are also areas of dairy production on the Lower Murray Reclaimed Irrigation Areas and around the Lower Lakes. In the agricultural areas, broad-hectare agricultural production is largely mixed cereal and livestock grazing, although pulse and oilseed crops are increasing as cropping intensifies, particularly in the more reliable rainfall areas in the south.
Annual rainfall ranges from an unreliable 235mm near Yunta just beyond the northern extremity of the region to 387mm at Lameroo, near the south-eastern corner of the region to 768mm at Mt Barker near the western edge of the region.