Greg Barila: River Murray - or Murray River? Single tweet sets off firestorm

South Australians refer to it as the River Murray. They’re also wrong, writes Victorian Greg Barila. What do you think? Vote in our poll.

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - Advertiser Photos FEBRUARY 8, 2023: The aftermath and debris left behind as the Murray River Flood waters recede at Foxtale Houseboats house and property in the Riverland town of Morgan SA. Picture Emma Brasier

It started, as these things so often do these days, on Twitter.

“Can journos please stop calling it the ‘River Murray’ already?” a mildly exasperated ABC Victoria radio producer Jo Printz Tweeted on Thursday.

“No one says the River Yarra or River Amazon or River Thames. It’s the Murray River. Or the Mighty Murray River, please and thank you”.

Ok, in Trumpian terms, it wasn’t the perfect tweet.

The Brits DO, in fact, refer to their most famous waterway as the River Thames.

But in every other way, the integrity of Printz’ argument was sound - about as sound as those earthen levees that, now, are pretty much the only thing standing between our towns and a river that would wreak total devastation.

As a born-and-bred Victorian, who has lived in South Australia for 20 years now, this cross-border disparity has always irritated me intensely.

Can journos please stop calling it the ‘River Murray’ already? No one says the River Yarra or River Amazon or River Thames. It’s the Murray River. Or the Mighty Murray River, please and thank you.

— Jo Printz (@JoPrintz) December 14, 2022

The name of that awesome natural artery, that right now has billions of litres of water coursing through it, and spilling over its banks, is called the Murray River.

It was the Murray River on the day I was born in 1979, it was the Murray River yesterday, it’s the Murray River today and it’ll be the bloody Murray River tomorrow!

I know that. Jo Printz knows that. But with a single tweet, Printz had, perhaps unwittingly, waded into dangerous waters. The South Australians flooded the zone quickly.

“It’s the River Murray in South Australia, just like Croweaters call their capital city’s waterway the River Torrens not the Torrens River,” Tweeter Anthony Bunn proffered.

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“I’m a journo who lived on the river in SA all my life up until 2015, and it’s the River Murray,” journalist Dani Brown tweeted.

“The only time Murray River is used in SA is in the tourism industry; environmentally (and any other way), it’s River Murray,” she wrote.

Simon Ives weighed in with a link to Wikipedia, which suggests the river is called the Murray River everywhere - except in South Australia.

A footnote on the Wikipedia page points to the South Australian Government’s “Guidelines for naming geographical places”, which state: “’River’ should be used as a generic term following name – for example, Onkaparinga River, except when referring to the River Torrens or River Murray.”

Err, ok. But why? The guidelines don’t say, but here’s my theory.

The whole country knows South Australians speak a more refined brand of English and “River Murray” sounds posher.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you (*the flourish of trumpets*) the Rrrrrrriver Murray”.

Yet while South Australians are quick to defend the River Murray label, clearly some folks missed the memo.

In press releases, both the Mid-Murray Council and Murray Bridge Council have referred to rising levels in “the Murray River”, although Renmark Paringa Council has been sticking to the South Aussie convention.

What do you call this thing? The Murray River? The River Murray? Does it matter??

All that means is the waters now are very muddy but what to do?

Adelaide writer Andrew P. Street had a possible solution.

“I think the only answer is to choose a universal term for the river that everyone can agree upon, and clearly the only sensible one is The Big Wet Muzza.”

But with the water flowing unabated, and communities up and down the river being issued with notices to evacuate maybe Daily Telegraph journalist Dylan Arvela has the best perspective.

“Does it matter?,” he tweeted.

Let’s call the whole thing off.