Murray–Darling Basin
5.1 Surface water allocation remaining

The volumetric value for the line item for the 2012–13 year was 4,204,314 ML. The line item represents surface water allocation remaining (excluding urban water systems) associated with a number of entitlement classes in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) region as at 30 June 2013. Information on surface water allocation remaining for urban water systems is included in line item 5.2 Surface water allocation remaining–urban water system.

Water allocation carry-over

The following two tables provide a summary and breakdown information on surface water allocation carry-over (excluding urban water systems) within the region. 

 

Summary of surface water allocation carry-over (excluding urban water systems) in the MDB region at the start and end of the 2012–13 year

Surface water resource plan area		State/Territory	Volume on 30 June 2013 (ML)	Volume on 30 June 2012 (ML)
Code	Name
SW20	Warrego–Paroo–Nebine	Qld	0	0
SW19	Condamine–Balonne	Qld	16,915	16,915
SW18	Moonie	Qld	n/a	n/a
SW17	Qld Border Rivers	Qld	0	0
SW16	NSW Border Rivers	NSW	187,753	211,447
SW12	Barwon–Darling Watercourse	NSW	n/a	n/a
SW13	NSW Intersecting Streams	NSW	n/a	n/a
SW15	Gwydir	NSW	552,401	758,824
SW14	Namoi	NSW	305,620	450,982
SW11	Macquarie–Castlereagh	NSW	305,633	654,501
Sub-total Northern Basin			1,368,322	2,092,669
SW10	Lachlan	NSW	501,365	853,786
SW9	Murrumbidgee NSW	NSW	357,642	600,396
SW8	NSW Murray and Lower Darling	NSW	226,948	811,097
SW3	Northern Victoria	Vic.	581,740	1,153,512
SW2	Vic. Murray	Vic.	985,663	1,635,861
SW4	Wimmera–Mallee	Vic.	182,634	150,131
SW7	Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges	SA	–	–
SW5	SA Murray Region	SA	–	–
SW6	SA River Murray	SA	–	–
SW1	ACT	ACT	n/a	n/a
Sub-total Southern Basin			2,835,992	5,204,783
Total for the region			4,204,314	7,297,452

  – = Data not available

 

Details of surface water allocation carry-over (excluding urban water systems) in the MDB region at the start and end of the 2012–13 year

Water resource plan area	Sustainable diversion limit area		State	Entitlement class	Volume on 30 June 2013 (ML)	Volume on 30 June 2012 (ML)
	Code	Name
SW20 Warrego–Paroo–Nebine	SS28	Warrego	Qld	Supplemented	0	0
SW19 Condamine–Balonne	SS26	Condamine–Balonne	Qld	Supplemented	16,915	16,915
SW17 Qld Border Rivers	SS24	Qld Border Rivers	Qld	Supplemented	0	0
Sub-total Queensland					16,915	16,915
SW16 NSW Border Rivers	SS23	NSW Border Rivers	NSW	High security	0	0
				General security	187,753	211,447
				Stock and domestic	0	0
				Sub-total	187,753	211,447
SW15 Gwydir	SS22	Gwydir	NSW	High security	0	0
				General security	552,404	758,824
				Stock and domestic	(3)	0
				High security– research	0	0
				Sub-total	552,401	758,824
SW14 Namoi	SS21	Namoi	NSW	High security	0	0
				General security	305,620	450,982
				Stock and domestic	0	0
				High security– research	0	0
				Sub-total	305,620	450,982
SW11 Macquarie–Castlereagh	SS20	Macquarie–Castlereagh	NSW	High security	(32)	0
				General security	305,665	654,501
				Stock and domestic	0	0
				High security– research	0	0
				Sub-total	305,633	654,501
SW10 Lachlan	SS16	Lachlan	NSW	High security	84	0
				General security	501,289	835,883
				Stock and domestic	(8)	(8)
				Conveyance	0	17,911
				Sub-total	501,365	853,786
SW9 Murrumbidgee NSW	SS15	Murrumbidgee NSW	NSW	High security	(21)	36
				General security	340,276	510,945
				Stock and domestic	0	0
				Conveyance	17,387	89,415
				High security– research	0	0
				High security– Aboriginal cultural	0	0
				Sub-total	357,642	600,396
SW8 NSW Murray and Lower Darling	SS18	Lower Darling	NSW	High security	0	0
				General security	18,210	56,543
				Stock and domestic	0	0
				Sub-total	18,210	56,543
	SS14	NSW Murray	NSW	High security	(267)	(141)
				General security	209,010	759,831
				Stock and domestic	(5)	(35)
				Conveyance	0	(5,101)
				High security– research	0	0
				High security– Aboriginal cultural	0	0
				High security– community & education	0	0
				Sub-total	208,738	754,554
Sub-total New South Wales					2,437,362	4,341,033
SW3 Northern Victoria	SS4	Ovens	Vic.	High reliability water share	50	0
	SS5	Broken	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	8,668	9,753
	SS6	Goulburn	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	418,840	758,538
	SS7	Campaspe	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	88,717	198,977
	SS8	Loddon	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	65,465	186,244
SW2 Vic. Murray	SS2	Vic. Murray	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	985,663	1,635,861
SW4 Wimmera–Mallee	SS9	Wimmera–Mallee	Vic.	High reliability water share	182,634	150,131
Sub-total Victoria					1,750,037	2,939,504
SW7 Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges	SS13	Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges	SA	Regulated	–	–
				unregulated	–	–
				Sub-total	0	0
	SS12	Marne Saunders	SA	Regulated	–	–
				unregulated	–	–
				Sub-total	–	–
SW5 SA Murray Region	SS10	SA Non-prescribed areas	SA	Regulated	–	–
				unregulated	–	–
				Sub-total	–	–
SW6 SA River Murray	SS11	SA Murray	SA	Class 1–Stock and domestic	0	0
				Class 3–Irrigation and holding	0	0
				Class 4– Recreation	0	0
				Class 5–Industrial	0	0
				Class 7– Environment	0	0
				Class 8– Environmental land management	0	0
				Combined classes metered	0	0
				Combined classes unmetered	0	0
				Sub-total	0	0
Sub-total South Australia					0	0
Total for the region					4,204,314	7,297,452

 – = Data not available

Surface water allocation remaining volumes provided in the above tables include environmental water carry-over volumes. New South Wales and Victoria reported 387,760 ML and 304,348 ML respectively at end of the 2012–13 as environmental water carry-over volumes.

Queensland

In Queensland, the resource operation plans (ROPs) distinguish between 'high and medium priority of supplemented water allocation'. The water audit monitoring (WAM) data are the data source for the 2013 Account and only distinguishes between 'supplemented' and 'unsupplemented' entitlements. Both urban and non-urban entitlements are included within the supplemented entitlement class. Supplemented urban and supplemented non-urban volumes on allocations, diversions and other attributes were received together and it was not possible to separate out these two types of entitlements. Therefore, this line item includes remaining allocation volumes for both urban (if any, normally forfeited) and non-urban supplemented entitlements.    

Carry-over did not apply in the water resources planning (WRP) areas within Queensland in the 2012–13 except in St George (Condamine–Balonne sustainable diversion limit [SDL] area), Border Rivers and Macintyre Brook (Queensland Border Rivers SDL area) water supply schemes which are continuous share schemes.

The water supply system associated with Beardmore storage in Condamine–Balonne SDL area is predominantly a capacity share scheme and doesn't have an annual announced allocation. Announced allocation is calculated on use plus available water remaining at the end of the water year. Therefore, carry-over in this system does not relate to bringing forward unused allocation.  Rather, it provides for the resource cap to be increased in the current year dependent on water use in the previous year.

For the Queensland Border Rivers SDL area, allocation announcement includes both the allocation announcement during the year and the remaining water available at the end of the previous year. No information was available to separate the water available at the end of the previous year from the allocation announced during the year. 

 

New South Wales

Allocations remaining for several stock and domestic entitlements in Macquarie–Castlereagh, Lachlan, and New South Wales Murray SDL areas, and conveyance entitlements in New South Wales Murray SDL area were negative volumes. This could be due to:

• overdraft of surface water allocation (advance drawing)
• overuse breach of licence condition
• an accounting/licensing anomalies arising as a result of (a) some entitlement holders' licence accounts were not updated to accommodate late transactions at the time of collecting data for this line item; and  (b) the entitlement holder holds many licences but the accounting was on one licence only (the anomalies continue until consolidating licences and fixing in the database occurs).

New South Wales carry-over volumes provided in this line item include environmental water allocation remaining volumes.

 

Victoria

All the allocation remaining as at 30 June 2013 was eligible for carry-over. In the Goulburn, Murray, and Campaspe systems if the total volume of carry-over is greater than the sum of the high- and low-reliability water shares, then this excess is placed in a spillable water account (SWA). From the start of the 2011–12 year, the SWA water only becomes available when the resource manager declares there is a low risk of spilling.  All other carry-over is available for use immediately.

In Victoria, once an allocation is made to an allocation account it no longer has the characteristic of being either high or low reliability. Therefore, all allocation remaining volumes were reported as combined high and low reliability water share.

Victorian carry-over volumes provided in this line item include environmental water allocation remaining volumes.

Victorian carry-over volumes provided in this line item also include any carry-over volumes for urban systems.  Reliable information distinguishing urban carry-over volumes was not available.

South Australia

No carry-over was permitted for South Australian Murray at the end of the 2012–13 year.

(1) New South Wales Office of Water's Water Accounting section: New South Wales data; and (2) Murray–Darling Basin Authority: WAM data received from Queensland (5 February 2014), South Australia (17 March 2014), and Victoria (14 February 2014). WAM data are stored in the Murray–Darling Basin Authority HYDRO database.

Bureau of Meteorology (the Bureau).

Water sharing plans, water resource plans and the water legislation of each state specify:

• the classes of licences that are permitted to carry forward any unused volumes
• rules attached to the volume that may be carried forward.

Allocation remaining (carry-over) volumes and allocation diversion (overdraw) of surface water allocation remaining were as calculated by the States.

• Uncertainty reported by New South Wales Office of Water accounts for possible errors in quantification of diversions and data handling processes.
• Only New South Wales and Queensland carry-over data is shown by a specific security class. This reflects the carry-over rules in the water resource plans.
• The line item value was an over-estimation as a result of including Victorian urban carry-over volumes.
• Information provided in this line item may have been based on Cap valleys in the HYDRO database which may not align perfectly with SDL areas.

• The uncertainty value for the New South Wales data provided in this line item is +/–10%.
• For the other data provided in this line item, the uncertainty estimate was not quantified.

 

Prior period errors and availability of updated information resulted in the restatement of the 2011–12 year volume. The respective volumes associated with the change are detailed in the following table.

 

Restatement of comparative year information made for the line item 5.1 Surface water allocation remaining

Segment	Volume at 30 June 2012 reported in the 2013 Account (ML)	Volume at 30 June 2012 reported in the 2012 Account (ML)	Difference due to prior period errors and availability of updated information (ML)
Northern Basin	2,092,669	2,090,549	2,120
Southern Basin	5,204,783	4,909,329	295,454
Whole region	7,297,452	6,999,878	297,574

Values reported in the 2012 Account were updated due to the following reasons:

• Values for several entitlement classes were updated for New South Wales and Victorian SDL areas. These updates were based on reconciling accounting/licensing anomalies, and errors in entitlement holder licence accounts.