The competing demands of economic development and the protection of the environment could hardly be better illustrated than in a story about the threat to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.In this program filmmaker Sally Ingleton explores the danger the reef faces from sediment and fertiliser run-off from cane farms in northern Queensland, in what is a fair attempt to be sympathetic to both sides.

This time, what’s at stake is one of the world’s greatest natural treasures. It’s the story of a small community facing the challenges of responsibility and change. Muddy Waters journeys to the plantations of north Queensland and into an underwater world to find out what’s killing the reef and what can be done to save it. Some locals are trying to bring all the parties together to develop a workable solution, but leading the way can be hard work. Sugarcane farmers, suffering bad seasons and low prices, are reeling at the prospect that their land management practices may be part of the problem. In their natural state, native wetlands filter the rain and silt but more than sixty per cent has been cleared and drained for sugarcane. This is the heart of the wet tropics where high rainfall regularly causes rivers like the Tully to flood, sending huge plumes of mud and chemicals into the sea. The reefs most at risk lie along Australia’s northeastern coast between Cairns and Townsville. Now scientists have identified another threat – sediments, fertilisers and pesticides from agricultural run-off. Global warming and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish have put extraordinary pressure on the reef. Parts of it are already dying, but the reasons have not always been clear. By 2030, half of the Great Barrier Reef may be gone. By 2010, forty per cent of the world’s coral reefs may be dead.

Muddy waters guild