Murray–Darling Basin

The volumetric value for the line item is 59,813 ML.

– =  no data available; n/a = not applicable

New South Wales volumes include the class of general security allocation adjustment and forfeiture volumes for:

• bulk (i.e. within irrigation trust) and individual irrigation
• the environment
• where the purpose is generally not known.

The volume also includes the repayments of 17,449 ML made to Snowy Hydro from New South Wales irrigators.

In New South Wales Murrumbidgee, irrigators have the possibility to ‘borrow’ water from the Snowy Scheme. This borrow is made under a contractual agreement between the irrigator and the Snowy Scheme. The volume contracted is then credited by New South Wales Office of Water (NOW) to the individual account of the irrigator, allowing the irrigator to order water from the water assets administered by NOW. In parallel, the Snowy Scheme transfers the physical water into Tumut Reservoir in the Murrumbidgee region. When the irrigator is able in subsequent years to repay the debt, they notify NOW, which debits the account from the volume previously borrowed, thus reducing the allocation announced earlier in the year. See Line item 7.1 Interbasin claim on water – remaining for a description of the interbasin transfers from Snowy Hydro.

No information specific to this entitlement class available for Victoria. See Line item 26.1.9.7 Adjustment and forfeiture of allocation on regulated flows – other lumped holders for data on all classes lumped together.

In Queensland, the resource operation plans (ROPs) distinguish between ‘high and medium priority of supplemented water allocation’ (names used in Queensland,, corresponding to high and general/low-security classes of water access entitlements, respectively, in the National Water Account 2010). In most cases, what the ROPs classify as high priority actually corresponds to urban purpose. The water audit monitoring (WAM) report data, however, only split between ‘supplemented’ and ‘unsupplemented’ entitlements, distinguishing for ‘supplemented’ only, urban purpose from all other purposes. For this reason, the National Water Account 2010 reports all ‘supplemented’ entitlements in Queensland under ‘other lumped water access entitlements (WAE)’ class. The National Water Account 2010 further splits Queensland's ‘supplemented’ entitlements between urban purpose, reported under ‘urban holder’ (Line item 26.1.9.4), and all other purposes, reported under ‘other lumped holders’ (Line item 26.1.9.7).

No other state has high or general/low-security classes of entitlements.

Data source

Australian Capital Territory: Water Audit Monitoring Report 2009–10 (30 November 2010).
New South Wales: New South Wales Office of Water’s Water Accounting section.
Queensland: Water Audit Monitoring Report 2009–10 (31 January 2011).
South Australia: Water Audit Monitoring Report 2009–10 (22 February 2011).
Victoria: Water Audit Monitoring Report 2009–10 (19 January 2011).

Note: Water audit monitoring (WAM) report data are stored in the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) HYDRO database.

Data provider

Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA).

Method

New South Wales Office of Water supplied data are prepared on a water balance approach. It implies that the movement of values during the year will balance the opening and closing balances. The forfeitures and adjustments have been checked to ensure that the closing balance reconciles.

Uncertainty

The uncertainty value for the New South Wales data provided in the line item is +/–10%.

Approximations, assumptions, caveats/limitations

• This item contains only New South Wales data.
• Victoria and Queensland WAM data received by MDBA did not allow separation into high and general/low-security classes.