Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

Water resources - Allocation and Use - New South Wales

Location map of Basin Richmond River

Drainage Basin: Richmond River

Introduction

Copyright Context map of Basin Richmond River

The National Water Reform Framework requires the development of comprehensive systems of water allocations or entitlements, backed by separation of water property rights from land and clear specification of entitlements in terms of ownership, volume, reliability, transferability and, if appropriate, quality. In addition State and Territory agencies are required to undertake formal determination of water allocations or entitlements, including allocations for the environment as a legitimate user of water.

Water use estimates have been derived from a number of different methods including the use of licencing systems, information provided as part of the Australian Bureau of Statistics water account (with provider consent) and other information gathered from the State and Territory water agencies. In some cases water use was assumed to be the same as the allocation. For groundwater systems, it is well known that this assumption is often invalid (e.g. typically where use exceeds allocation significantly).

Options for conjunctive use are also described.

Please note: The tables set out below detailing Level 1 and Level 2 water use categories. The sum of the Level 2 water use volumes will not necessarily equal the total Level 1 water use volumes. This is primarily due to lack of more detailed water use data. However, where Level 2 use = Level 1 use then blank cells in the table does not indicate water use unaccounted for in these categories.

This drainage basin comprises the following Surface Water Management Areas:

(SWMA) - Richmond River - Regulated New South Wales
(SWMA) - Richmond River - Unregulated New South Wales

Further information about surface water use and allocation may be found, by selecting one of these regions, or clicking on the map above.

How has water used changed since 1985?

Use type 1983-84 surface water use (ML/yr) 1996-97 surface water use (ML/yr) % change
Total 17,300 137
Irrigation 2,800 137 -95
- fruit N/A no data
- grape N/A no data
- system loss N/A no data
- sugar N/A no data
- other N/A no data
- pasture N/A no data
- cereal N/A no data
- vegetables N/A no data
- other crop N/A no data
- Cotton N/A no data
Urban / Industrial 12,500 0 -100
- municipal N/A no data
- coal N/A no data
- domestic unlicensed N/A no data
- domestic N/A no data
- mining N/A no data
- industrial N/A no data
- power N/A no data
- comercial N/A no data
- system loss N/A no data
- industrial commercial N/A no data
- other N/A no data
- recreation N/A no data
Rural 4,500 0 -100
- aquaculture N/A no data
- system loss N/A no data
- other N/A no data
- water supply N/A no data
- stock domestic N/A no data

PLEASE NOTE

Changes since 1985:

There are several areas where there are differences between data

1. Water usage figures were provided by the Department for the 1985 report. However the Department stopped collecting water usage data in unregulated areas in 1994/5 and no accurate data was available to be included in this report for the unregulated area. NSW has taken the approach that it is better to await the availability of data on the unregulated basins based on reliable and realistic analysis than to divert limited resources from this process to provide data based on unreliable information and inappropriate analysis.

2. Water allocation figures were provided by the Department for the 1985 report. However the Department is currently undertaking a major study to convert licenses from an areal basis to a volumetric basis. This data is not yet available in the unregulated areas and no accurate allocation data could be provided for this report.

3. Catchment areas for basins will differ between reports. In 1985 catchment areas for basins were obtained from hand planimetering the best available large scale maps. The latest catchment areas have been obtained from the Departments GIS system. As well as part of its Stressed Streams analysis and as better topographical information has become available in the arid western zones of the state the boundaries between adjacent catchments have been better defined.

4. In the coastal areas in particular there has been a significant increase in the amount of data availoable to calculate the Mean Annual Flow. The increase in data is typically in the order of a 20% increase reaching 100% in some basins. This has lead to some substantial changes between the values produced in 1985 and the latest fvalues for this report.

Major changes have occurred in assessment methods and quality of data.

1. From 1987 to the present NSW water agencies have progressively introduced new digital technology for the monmitoring of water resources data. this has included the introduction of data loggers and telemetry (SCADA, telephones, and satellites) for real time data collection.

2. The management and processing of the data have also changed significantly with the introduction of the HYSDYS software package in 1989. The shift from mainframe based computers to networked linked PC's has dramatically improved the access to data and the availability for review and quality control.

3. There has also been siginificant advances made with the dissemination of data to a much wider audience external to the Department with the corresponding increase in the use and review of the data. The Departments first CD containing a complete copy of the surface water archive was made available in 1990. Version 6.1 is currently available and a new Millenium version is being developed. Data is also being made available via the Internet as a direct service to various community groups.

 

Further information

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