Discussion of Bourman, R. P., Murray-Wallace, C. V., Wilson, C., Mosley, L., Tibby, J., Ryan, D. D., De Carli, E. D., Tulley, A., Belperio, A. P., Haynes, D., Roberts, A., Westell, C., Barnett, E. J., Dillenburg, S., Beheregaray, L. B., Hesp, P. A. (2022). Holocene freshwater history of the Lower River Murray and its terminal lakes, Alexandrina and Albert, South Australia, and its relevance to contemporary environmental management. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 69(6), 605–629

We further support the development of adaptation pathways for the future directions for water management in light of expected climate changes (Finlayson I et al i ., [9]; Gell I et al i ., [17]), being aware that the Australasian chapter in the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Lawrence I et al i ., [32]) has drawn attention to the difficulties that may arise with water sharing in the basin. ([4]) advocate with confidence that Lake Alexandrina must be kept fresh (as defined by Lester I et al., i [33], presumably) for the foreseeable future, as it was ever thus. ([4]) paper, as it was in similar advocacy papers and reports emerging from South Australia (Fluin I et al i ., [12]; Sim & Muller, [38]; Tibby I et al i ., [42]; and even Chiew I et al i ., [5]; who despite noting the records of the "mid-basin cores [are] indicative of intermediate salinity" [[5], p. 24], conclude that the lake was "largely fresh"). Maybe too, the father of Australian coastal geomorphology, Prof. Eric Bird, was misguided when he wrote in 1962 'After winter rains, and particularly after flooding in the Murray valley, the lakes became I almost fresh i , but in drought periods the reduction in freshwater inflow led to invasion of the lakes by sea water, and I high levels of salinity i were attained' (Bird, [3], p. 204). [Extracted from the article]