Water management

Access to water

Access to surface water or groundwater is through water entitlements governed by the relevant Water Plan or prescribed under the Water Act (e.g. permits or stock and domestic use). Infrastructure to take or store water for stock and domestic uses does not require a water licence but notifications of works, and compliance with the regulations invoked by those works, can be required.

Surface water management

Surface water in the Gilbert River catchment is allocated based on the Water Plan (Gulf) 2007 and is overseen by the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water (RDMW). For areas of the bed sands of the Gilbert River located within 1 km of the prescribed watercourse, water in the sands are classified as surface water (not groundwater) and allocated as such.

Farm-scale allocations to support Irrigated Agriculture: Four zones are defined in the Gilbert River Water Management Area (WMA).

In Zones 3, 4 and 5, five entitlements with a total volumetric limit of 5082 ML/year, actively extract water from the bed sands. Total extractions from these zones varied between 178 and 2894 ML/year between 2010 and 2017. There are no flow restrictions associated with these zones and water trading is allowed within the same zone.

Zone 6 includes the area covered by the other zones, but with flow restrictions on when water can be taken. Applications for new licenses can be made under the current Gulf Unallocated Water Release.

Water trading zones (Zone 6 also covers the same area as Zones 3-5, but with flow restrictions)
Maximum annual volumetric limits: Zone 3 1,800 ML/yr, Zone 4 600 ML/yr,
Zone 5 2,682 ML/yr, Zone 6 25,242 ML/yr 1

General unallocated water to support water infrastructure: Additional general unallocated water exists, totalling 467,000 ML (see section 39 and schedule 8 of the Water Plan (Gulf) 2007). This water may be granted to a coordinated project, a project of regional significance (see Section 27 of the Plan) or town water supply.

The Development Business Case for the Proposed Green Hills Dam noted the potential for up to 200,000 ML of entitlements to be issued for the support of water infrastructure. The maintenance of environmental flows is a requirement of the Gulf Water Plan, which these larger entitlements would also be required to provide. For example, the proposed Green Hills Dam if it were approved and constructed, would need to be able to release up to 136,830 ML per day to meet the Gulf Water Plan’s environmental flow objectives (Jacobs Australia Pty Ltd, 2020).

Indigenous unallocated water: 17,000 ML of unallocated water is available in the Gilbert catchment for the purpose of helping Indigenous communities achieve their economic and social aspirations (Section 33 & Schedule 6A, Water Plan (Gulf) 2007).

Overland flow water

A licence to capture and use overland flow is needed for any purpose that is not stock and domestic when the volume of dam constructed will exceed 250 ML (e.g. 25ha 1m deep). As for take from the Gilbert River, licences for overland flow can be applied for under the current Gulf Unallocated Water Release, managed under the Water Plan (Gulf) 2007.

Groundwater management

Groundwater resources in Great Artesian Basin aquifers in the Gilbert River catchment are managed based on the Great Artesian Basin and Other Regional Aquifers (GABORA) plan. Only one of the current bores with an assigned ‘authorised purpose’ in the Gilbert River Agricultural Precinct is authorised to be used for irrigation purposes. The entitlement for this bore is 13 ML/yr and is managed under the GABORA water plan rules. This bore is described as being in the Gilbert River Formation. The remaining bores are used for stock and/or domestic supply and do not have associated entitlements but would result in relatively low groundwater use.

Groundwater that does not fall under the management of the GABORA is managed by the Water Plan (Gulf) 2007.

Resources

Surface water:

Great Artesian Basin:

On this website:

Data sources

  1. Table 6A in Gulf Resource Operations Plan June 2010 Amendment August 2015 ↩

Last updated: 2022-06-01