Border Rivers: Supporting information
- Dry conditions contributed to very low runoff and storage inflows across the region.
- End of year storage dropped to 7% full, the lowest in more than 10 years.
- 96% of the water accessible for use was taken in 2018–19, primarily for agricultural supply.
For further information on the region's water accounting statements scroll down this page or click on the links below:
Water assets
- Water asset volumes in the region at 30 June 2019 were 126 GL, around a third of which is water held in storages. The remaining amount is water held in rivers and aquifers.
Storages
Figure S1 Total storage volume in the catchment at 30 June 2019 compared with the previous 9 years
- Storage volumes decreased from 53% full at 30 June 2018 to 7% full at 30 June 2019, the second consecutive decrease in storage.
- The end of year storage at 30 June 2019 was the lowest in more than 10 years.
Figure S2 Percentage-full volume on 30 June 2019 for each storage and total storage volume from 2013–2019 (inset)
- Storage volumes declined throughout almost the entire year for the second consecutive year.
- All three storages within the Border Rivers catchment were less than 10% full at 30 June 2019.
- More detailed information on the individual storages within the region is available on the Bureau of Meteorology's Water Storage website.
Aquifers
- The volume of groundwater storage for the catchment represents sustainable diversion limit volumes as provided by the Murray–Darling Basin Authority.
- This volume increased from last year due to a change in sustainable diversion limit.
Water flows
- Total surface water flows into the region's storages was around 319 GL. The key item contributing to surface water inflows was runoff, which made up almost 95% of the total surface water inflows.
- Runoff was the lowest on record (based on modelled data from 1971–2019) due to the relatively poor rainfall across the region. This was the second successive year of very low runoff across the catchment.
- The key items contributing to surface water outflows was evaporation, which made up over 20% of the total surface water outflows.
- Outflow is typically one of the larger flows but in 2018–19 it only made up 1% of the total surface water outflows. Outflow was well below average due to the dry conditions and low runoff across the region.
- A detailed description on consumptive water use is provided in the Water use section below.
Water use
Figure S3 Water use during the 2018–19 year within the catchment's water resource plan areas
- Total water use in the catchment was 292 GL.
- 88% of the water used was for individual users, mostly for irrigation and agricultural purposes, and 6% of the water use was for individual users under a basic right.
- 3% of the water use was for an environmental benefit, mostly in the Queensland Border Rivers Water Resource Plan area, while 3% of the water taken was for town supply.
Figure S4 Accessible water and abstractions in the Border Rivers catchment for the years ending 30 June, from 2013–2019
- Accessible water is the volume of water in storages, rivers, and aquifers that is lawfully accessible for consumptive use. It is based on the volume of carryover of water entitlements from the previous year and announced allocations during the year.
- The volume of water lawfully accessible for take has decreased over the last two years reflecting the drop in water availability across the region.
- 96% of the accessible water was taken in 2018–19 compared with 62% taken last year.
- Actual water taken was similar to last year reflecting similar dry conditions across the catchment over the last two years.
- The volume of water accessible for environmental use, which is also based on the volume of carryover of water entitlements from the previous year and announced allocations during the year, is around 3% of the water accessible for consumptive use.