Burdekin: Statement details
- Heavy rainfall in late-January to early-February 2019 associated with an intense monsoon low contributed to above-average annual runoff across the region.
- End of year storage volume increased to 99% full compared to 93% full last year.
For further information on the region's water accounting statements scroll down this page or click on the links below:
Water assets
Surface water assets
- Surface water asset volumes in the region at 30 June 2019 were 1,995 GL, more than 99% of which is water held in storages. The remaining amount is water held in rivers.
Figure S1 Total storage volume in the region at 30 June 2019 compared with the previous 6 years
- Storage volumes increased from 93% full at 30 June 2018 to 99% full at 30 June 2019.
- Lake Dalrymple, formed by Burdekin Falls Dam, accounts for almost 95% of the region's total surface water storage.
Figure S2 Percentage-full volume on 30 June 2019 for each storage and total daily storage volume from 2013–19 (inset)
- Storage volumes exceeded 200% full in early February 2019 following heavy rainfall associated with an intense monsoon low (see Climate and water). Storage volumes remained above 100% full, with the dam continuing to spill, until May 2019.
- More detailed information on the individual storages within the region is available on the Bureau of Meteorology's Water Storage website.
Groundwater assets
- The groundwater asset represents the licensed entitlements associated with the region's aquifers. The volume increased from 169 GL at 30 June 2018 to 188 GL at 30 June 2019.
Water liabilities
- Water liabilities in the Burdekin region refer to the volume of allocation remaining on licence entitlements at the end of the 2018–19 year.
| Description | Individual users (ML) | Urban system (ML) | Irrigation scheme (ML) | Inter-region Transfer (ML) | |
| Opening balance at 1 July 2018 | 0 | 0 | 74,084 | 0 | |
| add | Allocation | 439,777 | 11,844 | 676,134 | 31,425 |
| less | Allocated diversion | 67,018 | 1,274 | 440,911 | 15,705 |
| less | Adjustment and forfeiture | 372,759 | 10,570 | 189,494 | 15,720 |
| Closing balance at 30 June 2019 | 0 | 0 | 119,813 | 0 | |
| Description | Individual users (ML) | Urban system (ML) | Irrigation scheme (ML) | |
| Opening balance at 1 July 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| add | Allocation | 704 | 480 | 50,308 |
| less | Allocated extraction | 704 | 280 | 30,570 |
| less | Adjustment and forfeiture | 0 | 200 | 19,738 |
| Closing balance at 30 June 2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
- All the water supply licences for the region have a water management year that ends on 30 June.
- A more detailed description of water allocations and associated water rights in the Burdekin region is given in the Water access and use note.
Water flows
- Total surface water flows into the region's storages was 20,436 GL. The key item contributing to surface water inflows was runoff, which made up more than 95% of total surface water inflows for the region.
- Runoff was above average (based on modelled data from 1971–2019), mainly due to high rainfall associated with an intense monsoon low in early-January to early-February 2019 (see Climate and water).
- The key item contributing to surface water outflows from the region's storages was river outflow, which made up approximately 90% of the total surface water outflows. River outflow was almost double the annual average, largely due to the very high streamflows in the Burdekin River during February 2019 following the intense monsoon low event.
- A detailed description on all the water flows associated with the surface water and groundwater stores, including consumptive water use, is provided in the Water stores note.
Unaccounted-for difference
- The unaccounted–for difference is the volume necessary to reconcile the opening water storage and closing water storage with the total water inflows and total water outflows reported in the water accounting statements.
| Description | Volume (ML) | |
| Closing water storage at 30 June 2019 | 2,183,369 | |
| less | Total inflows | 20,619,978 |
| add | Total outflows | 21,970,910 |
| less | Opening water storage at 1 July 2018 | 2,058,805 |
| Unaccounted-for difference | 1,475,496 | |
- The relatively high unaccounted-for difference value is primarily attributed to uncertainties associated with the runoff estimate (see Methods).