In August 1999, the Yorta Yorta people organised a two-day meeting in the Barmah Forest for traditional owner groups whose country is along the Murray River. The meeting resolved to develop a stronger voice for traditional owners in policy and management responses to the severely degraded Murray River, including strengthening the relationships between traditional owner groups through the development of ‘Nation to Nation’ protocols (see also Morgan et al. 2006: 142–3). At a second meeting two months later, the traditional owners decided to create an umbrella body that could represent traditional owners and be a platform to engage with government. Specifically, a board of delegates was proposed which would have representation from each traditional owner group. A broader consultation process with traditional owners followed, undertaken by Yorta Yorta woman Monica Morgan (working for the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation) and Mutti Mutti elder Jeanette Crew (working for the New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation), and in 2001 MLDRIN held its inaugural meeting. Since then, MLDRIN has consolidated its organisational structure and election processes, and has incorporated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cwlth). MLDRIN usually meets four times a year with two delegates attending for each traditional owner group. Crucial to its ongoing operation, MLDRIN has also been able to secure its funding base. In 2003, MLDRIN secured a three-year funding agreement with the Murray–Darling Basin Commission which included funding for meetings and a full-time coordinator. This three-year funding agreement was renewed in 2006.

Today MLDRIN remains an alliance of 10 traditional owner groups, also known as Nations: the Wiradjuri, Yorta Yorta, Taungurung, Wamba Wamba, Barapa Barapa, Mutti Mutti, Wergaia, Wadi Wadi, Latji Latji, and Ngarrindjeri. These traditional owners have country in the southern part of the Murray–Darling Basin (see Fig. 10.1). A lot of the work of the alliance is focused on increasing the involvement of traditional owners in natural resource management and planning, particularly ecological restoration projects, and it is lobbying for an Indigenous water allocation. The MLDRIN alliance is also supportive of the work and aspirations of each traditional owner group. However, MLDRIN has a principle that the alliance cannot interfere with Nation business, because it argues that traditional authority is vested in the Nation group and not the alliance.

In 2007, the delegates established a web presence for MLDRIN at www.mldrin.org.au, which details that the role of MLDRIN is to perform the following functions for the traditional owners of the Murray–Darling River Valleys:

MLDRIN is thus a creation of the traditional owners that seeks to consolidate the traditional owner identity by forming a regional alliance within which traditional owner groups acknowledge and support each other. The alliance also emphasises the distinct responsibilities that traditional owners hold in their traditional country, and argues that that they require greater representation and rights in order to fulfil their responsibilities to country. It chiefly engages with State governments and departments, the Murray–Darling Basin Commission, and the Commonwealth government, and it also works closely with environmental groups who are concerned about river health. The support it has already received from government—funding, employment positions, inclusion on boards and in briefings—shows that the confederation is valued by government as a consultative body for policymakers. The political assertions of the delegates, that they are the ones who speak for country, have been acknowledged by government in Memoranda of Understanding signed between MLDRIN and the former New South Wales Department of Land and Water Conservation (in 2001), and the Commission (in 2006).