Australian Water Resources 2005 is the National Water Commission's baseline assessment of Australia 's water resources in 2004/2005 (the first year of the National Water Initiative).

Australian Water Resources 2005 synthesises information at the national scale to increase the understanding of Australia's water resources, and identify knowledge gaps that reduce Australia 's ability to manage water resources effectively and sustainably.

Australian Water Resources 2005 has targeted five objectives of the National Water Initiative that require information on water resources for successful implementation:

statutory provision for environmental and other public benefit outcomes , and improved environmental management practices (Objective iii)
complete the return of all currently overallocated or overused systems to environmentally-sustainable levels of extraction (Objective iv)
water accounting that is able to meet the information needs of different water systems in respect to planning, monitoring, trading, environmental management and on-farm management (Objective vii)
policy settings that facilitate water use efficiency and innovation in urban and rural areas (Objective viii)
recognise the connectivity between surface and groundwater resources and connected systems so they can be managed as a single resource (Objective x)

The drilling of bores provides access to the large groundwater reserves within much of Australia
Image by Ryan Morris, sourced from SKM

Key findings of Australian Water Resources 2005 - Level 1 Assessment

Water planning

Water planning approaches are highly varied across Australia 's 340 surface water and 367 groundwater management units. At present only 18 per cent of surface water management areas, and 33 per cent of groundwater management units have a draft or final management plan in place. In many areas across Australia , surface and groundwater resources are physically connected, however integrated planning and management of water resources is the exception rather than the rule.

Water planning relies on water metering - such as with these metered irrigation channel gates, to meet water sharing objectives
Sourced from the National Water Commission

Water availability and use

In recent years there has been much work to better define overallocated water resource systems. For example, governments have agreed to recover water to address overallocation in the Murray-Darling Basin (500 gigalitres per year, as a first step) and the Snowy River (212 gigalitres per year). Despite these advances there is still no nationally agreed, standardised method for calculating and reporting sustainable yield.

River and wetland health

Over 3500 wetlands are given protection in Australia under the International Ramsar Convention and Commonwealth, State and Territory legislation. In contrast only a handful of rivers of high conservation value are protected, in Victoria (with 43) and New South Wales (with 5). National Parks and other terrestrial systems do not necessarily protect the catchment conditions and flow requirements required for the health of rivers and wetlands within them.

Download brochure of key findings:

Australian Water Resources 2005 - Key Findings of Level 1 Assessment (PDF, 900 Kb)

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Key Findings of Australian Water Resources 2005 – Level 2 Assessment

Water Availability

Australia’s climate is highly variable and water resources are scarce in many areas. Rainfall ranges from less than 200 mm in the deserts of central Australia, to over 2000 mm in some coastal areas in the far north and far south. In 2004-05 rainfall across the country was below average, and only about 10 per cent of rainfall or 292,000 GL became runoff to rivers and streams, or recharge to groundwater aquifers. The total storage capacity of Australia’s large dams in 2004-05 was approximately 84,000 GL, and the volume in storage declined over the year from 53 per cent to 48 per cent of total capacity.

Water Use

Total water use in Australia in 2004-05 was nearly 80,000 GL, with about 75 per cent of this water returned to the environment following in-stream uses such as hydroelectric power generation. Consumptive use of water in the Australian economy in 2004-05 was 18,767 GL, with the agriculture sector the largest user (65 per cent), followed by household use (11 per cent). Due to dry conditions and limited water availability, consumptive use was 14 per cent less than was used in 2000-01. Household water use also declined 8 per cent from 2000-01, to a level of 103 kL per person.

Pigs trough on the Franklin River in western Tasmania
Image by Luke Roberts, sourced from SKM

River and Wetland Health

Australian Water Resources 2005 has developed a new national framework for the assessment of river and wetland health, that in the future can be applied to deliver a nationally consistent overview. The framework is based on six catchment and river-wetland criteria – physical form, water quality, aquatic biota, hydrological disturbance, fringing zone and catchment disturbance. The new framework builds on, and has been tested against, existing Victorian and Tasmanian approaches, with further trials soon to commence in Queensland.

Level of Water Resource Development

Detailed water balances have been prepared for fifty one representative water management areas across Australia. For these areas, the level of water resource development and use in 2004-05 has been assessed. The results indicate that in 2004-05, of these water management areas: six were overused (consumptive use was greater than sustainable yield) and seventeen had a high level of consumptive use as a proportion of inflows (consumptive use greater than 30 per cent of inflows). Two water management areas (Great Artesian Basin and Mereenie Sandstone - Alice Springs) had consumptive use greater than total annual inflow in 2004-05.

Next steps - Australian Water Resources Information System

Specifications have been developed for a new Australian Water Resources Information System (AWRIS), which, when implemented, will enable the more rapid compilation and presentation of future Australian water resource assessments. The Prime Minister’s recently announced National Plan for Water Security proposes an expanded role for the Bureau of Meteorology, including implementation of AWRIS and undertaking of future water resource assessments.

Download brochure of Level 2 key findings:

Australian Water Resources 2005 – Key Findings of Level 2 Assessment (950 Kb)

(this document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader)

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Last Updated 12/06/2007