Murray–Darling Basin
33.3 Groundwater access entitlement for allocated extractions

The volumetric value for the line item for the 2011–12 year was 1,831,641 ML. The line item includes groundwater entitlements or other arrangements that may produce a groundwater liability within the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) region.  The following table presents breakdown information for the line item value on a sustainable diversion limit area basis.

 

Groundwater access entitlement for allocation extraction in the MDB region as applicable in the 2011–12 year

Groundwater resource plan area	Groundwater sustainable diversion limit area		State	Volume (ML) for the 2011–12 year
	Code	Name		Non-urban	Urban	Supplementary	Total
GW18 New South Wales Border Rivers Alluvium	GS32and GS33	NSW Border Rivers Alluvium and NSW Border Rivers Tributary Alluvium	NSW	17,435	45	0	17,480
GW17 New England Fractured Rock and Northern Basalts	GS18	Inverell Basalt	NSW	3,076	3	0	3,079
	GS22	Liverpool Ranges Basalt	NSW	422	0	0	422
	GS37	New England Fold Belt	NSW	7,942	559	0	8,501
	GS49	Warrumbungle Basalt	NSW	71	0	0	71
GW16 Eastern Porous Rock	GS17	Gunnedah–Oxley Basin MDB	NSW	16,670	420	0	17,090
	GS41	Sydney Basin MDB	NSW	2,358	0	0	2,358
GW15 Gwydir Alluvium	GS24	Lower Gwydir Alluvium	NSW	28,858	3,572	13,930	46,360
GW14 Namoi Alluvium	GS29	Lower Namoi Alluvium	NSW	81,596	4,407	20,874	106,877
	GS40	Peel Valley Alluvium	NSW	62,136	734	n/a	62,870
	GS47	Upper Namoi Alluvium	NSW	109,632	6,280	37,783	153,695
GW13 New South Wales Great Artesian Basin Shallow	GS34 to GS 36	New South Wales GAB: Surat Shallow, Warrego Shallow and Central Shallow	NSW	5,694	0	0	5,694
GW12 Macquarie–Castlereagh Alluvium	GS14	Castlereagh Alluvium	NSW	583	0	0	583
	GS26	Lower Macquarie Alluvium	NSW	65,458	3,090	2,396	70,944
GW 11 Lachlan and South Western Fractured Rock	GS19	Kanmantoo Fold Belt	NSW	1,500	0	0	1,500
Sub-total Northern Basin				403,431	19,110	74,983	497,524
GW 11 Lachlan and South Western Fractured Rock	GS10	Adelaide Fold Belt	NSW	2,150	0	0	2,150
	GS 20	Lachlan Fold Belt	NSW	73,279	2,517	0	75,796
	GS39	Orange Basalt	NSW	9,471	79	0	9,550
	GS51	Young Granite	NSW	6,338	16	0	6,354
GW7 Darling Alluvium	GS23	Lower Darling Alluvium	NSW	876	0	0	876
GW10 Lachlan Alluvium	GS25	Lower Lachlan Alluvium	NSW	105,678	2,924	21,238	129,840
GW9 Murrumbidgee Alluvium	GS28	Lower Murrumbidgee Alluvium (deep; Calivil formation and Renmark Group)	NSW	268,104	2,230	41,196	311,530
		Lower Murrumbidgee Alluvium (shallow; Shepparton formation)	NSW	5,201	n/a	n/a	5,201
GW8 Murray Alluvium	GS27	Lower Murray Alluvium (deep; Renmark Group and Calivil formation)	NSW	83,592	79	47,782	131,453
		Lower Murray Alluvium (shallow; Shepparton formation)	NSW	62,334	0	0	62,334
	GS46	Upper Murray Alluvium	NSW	41,077	191	0	41,268
GW6 Western Porous Rock	GS50	Western Porous Rock	NSW	32,324	0	0	32,324
GW2 Goulburn–Murray	GS08	Goulburn–Murray	Vic.	454,942	n/a	n/a	454,942
GW3 Wimmera–Mallee (groundwater)	GS09	Wimmera–Mallee	Vic.	45,122	n/a	n/a	45,122
GW5 Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges	GS01	Angus Bremer (Murray Group limestone)	SA	6,500	n/a	n/a	6,500
	GS04	Marne Saunders (fractured rock)	SA	2,000	n/a	n/a	2,000
		Marne Saunders (Murray Group limestone)	SA	2,156	n/a	n/a	2,156
		Marne Saunders (Renmark Group)	SA	500	n/a	n/a	500
GW4 SA Murray	GS03	Mallee (Murray Group limestone)	SA	5,138	n/a	n/a	5,138
		Mallee (Renmark Group)	SA	3,700	n/a	n/a	3,700
	GS05	Peake–Roby–Sherlock (confined)	SA	2,168	n/a	n/a	2,168
		Peake–Roby–Sherlock (unconfined)	SA	3,215	n/a	n/a	3,215
Sub-total Southern Basin				1,215,865	8,036	110,216	1,334,117
Total for the region				1,619,296	27,146	185,199	1,831,641

 

The table provides information about New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.  Information for Australian Capital Territory and Queensland is not available to be reported.

Other supporting information:

• Non-urban volume stated in the table for GS27 Lower Murray Alluvium includes entitlements for salinity and water table management.

• Non-urban volume stated in the table for GS8 Goulburn–Murray includes both non-urban and urban entitlements.

• The South Australian – Victorian Border Groundwaters Agreement (Government of South Australia 2005) is supported by legislation in both States. It provides for equitable sharing in the border zone, which extends from the coast to the Murray and is a 40 km wide zone centred on the border. The States agree on setting permissible consumptive volumes and other requirements within this zone. Various alluviums selected for reporting are either within or partly within this border zone. These are the Murrayville Water Supply Protection Area (WSPA), Kaniva WSPA and Telopia Downs WSPA in Victoria, and Mallee Prescribed Wells Area (PWA) and Tintinara–Coonalpyn PWA in South Australia. These are State groundwater management units and licensed entitlements and extractions are included within the State groundwater management unit not within the border zone. Therefore, separate reporting on the border zone is not needed and would be double-counting.

• The Tintinara–Coonalpyn PWA is not included as part of this region. It is not considered to be part of the MDB resources and is excluded by the Water Act 2007 (Cwlth) regulations from the MDB.

 

Jurisdictional water allocation plans and other data sources for groundwater resources listed under 'Method'.

Bureau of Meteorology (the Bureau).

Extracted/calculated from following jurisdictional water allocation plans and other data sources for groundwater resources.

Water sharing plans for groundwater resource plan areas:

• Water Allocation Plan for the Angas Bremer PWA
• Water Allocation Plan for Mallee PWA
• Water Allocation Plan for the Marne Saunders Prescribed Water Resources Area 
• Water Allocation Plan for the Noora PWA
• Water Allocation Plan for the Peake, Roby and Sherlock PWA
• Upper Ovens River Water Management Plan 2012.

Other data sources:

• New South Wales Office of Water: water access licence statistics
• Victorian Water Accounts 2010–11.  

The entitlement volumes reported are the initial volumes of the water allocation plans. The actual volumes of entitlements during the 2011–12 year period may be different from the initial volumes on issue at the time of the water plans' commencement, due to conversions between classes or issue of new entitlements. Note that trade (ownership transfer), water savings projects or buy back of entitlements for environmental purpose do not change the volume entitled within a class but only its ownership.

The uncertainty estimate was not quantified.

 

The following changes resulted in the restatement of the 2010–11 year volume:

• scope change
• error correction.

The changes and their respective values are detailed in the following table.

 

Restatement of comparative year information made for the line item 33.3 Groundwater access entitlement for allocated extractions

2011 Account line item	Segment	2012 Account volume for the 2010–11 year (ML)	2011 Account volume for the 2010–11 year (ML)	Difference due to scope change and prior period error correction (ML)
33.3 Groundwater access entitlement for allocation extraction	Northern Basin	439,031	387,904	51,127
	Southern Basin	1,127,015	1,018,928	108,087
	Whole region	1,566,046	1,406,832	159,214

Scope change was due to the following reason:

• Information on entitlement volumes for several groundwater management areas and water supply protection areas in Victoria was not included in the 2011 Account. The areas are Alexandra, Barnawatha, Kinglake, Loddon Highlands, Lower Ovens, Mid-Goulburn, Mullindolingong, Upper Ovens, Little Desert, Nhill and unincorporated areas. Information for these areas has been included in the 2012 Account. Resulting volume for this scope change is 106,398 ML.

Prior period error correction was due to the following reasons:

• Entitlement volumes which are based on the water sharing plan commenced during 2010–11 for Peel Valley Alluvium in New South Wales were not included in the 2011 Account. These volumes have been included in the 2012 Account.  As a result entitlement volume reported in the 2012 Account for the 2010–11 year is 51,125 ML.

• Campaspe Deep Lead Water Supply Protection Area and Southern Campaspe Plains Groundwater Management Area for which separate information was provided in the 2011 Account are now parts of the Lower Campaspe Valley WSPA. In the 2012 account entitlement volumes for the Lower Campaspe Valley WSPA has been provided.  As a result entitlement volume for the 2010–11 year has been updated from previous 54,398 ML to 56,627 ML resulting 2,229 ML increase.

• Minor updates to information provided in the 2011 Account for the other sustainable diversion limit areas have resulted in 538 ML decrease in entitlement volumes.