1.5.1 Current water accounts

Summary

The Gloucester subregion includes two river basins, with its northern part belonging to the Gloucester river basin, and its southern part belonging to the Karuah river basin. The surface water resources in the two river basins are not subject to major dams or weirs regulation, but are affected by irrigation diversion. The Gloucester River and Karuah River produce mean annual flow of 550 GL/year and 270 GL/year at Doon Ayre and Booral, respectively. For the northern rivers, there are 84 surface water access licences amounting to 6806 ML of water for the stream network; for the southern rivers, there are 25 surface water access licences amounting to 951 ML of water for the stream network.

A water licence is required for a groundwater bore only under certain regulatory conditions. While groundwater usage may be metered as part of water licensing conditions, actual groundwater usage data are not readily available for groundwater bores in the Gloucester subregion. Of the 192 groundwater bores that are currently in use across the Gloucester subregion, 175 bores have water licences allocated to them. In total, some 1864 ML/year of groundwater licenses are allocated across the subregion. Summarising water licence allocations may under estimate the amount of groundwater used in the Gloucester subregion as many bores do not have an associated water licence. Some guidelines for the estimation of groundwater usage are outlined in this product. Groundwater withdrawals by existing resource developments are included in the estimate. Groundwater withdrawals by proposed resource developments will be included in subsequent products when available.

Based on the bore yield values reported in the water licence database (Bioregional Assessment Programme, Dataset 3), it is estimated that for the Gloucester subregion some 2878 ML/year are extracted across the Gloucester subregion. Commercial purpose was the largest user of groundwater followed by dewatering bores. The largest estimated withdrawals occur from the alluvial aquifer. A significant number of bores had insufficient data to be able to determine which aquifer the groundwater was being drawn from.

Last updated:
5 January 2018