* The Murray River is the continent's longest, stretching 2,508 km. It rises in the Australian Alps west of Mt Kosciuszko, meanders along the NSW-Victorian border and empties into the Great Australian Bight south of Adelaide.
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* The Darling River or Baaka is 1,472 km long and the third-longest. It flows from southern Queensland where the Barwon and Culgoa rivers meet to Wentworth on the Victorian border, where it meets the mighty Murray.
* The Murray-Darling Basin drains southwest into the Bight from west of the Great Dividing Range.
* It spans most of NSW and Victoria and takes in the ACT, the lower third of Queensland and southeastern South Australia.
* The basin is 3,375 km long in total, features six of Australia's seven longest rivers and covers a seventh of the continent.
* It is home to 16 internationally significant wetlands, 35 endangered species and 98 different species of waterbirds.
* More than 2.2 million people live in the Basin, including people from 40 different First Nations.
* It attracts visitors from around the world, with tourism earning around $8 billion each year.
* Around 40 per cent of Australia's agricultural produce comes from the basin, including 100 per cent of our rice, 80 per cent of our grapes and 28 per cent of our dairy.
* A total of 3.6 million people (including the entire population of Adelaide which is not in the basin) rely on water from the basin rivers for drinking, washing, farming and irrigation.
Sources: CSIRO and Murray-Darling Basin Authority
Australian Associated Press