Surface water diversions

Water can be diverted from surface water resources in a number of ways including:

• major diversions by water supply companies for distributed supply systems to urban, rural, commercial or industrial users
• private diversions directly from a stream or waterbody by individual users, either for direct use or to fill a storage for later use
• on-stream or catchment storages that capture runoff or impede the flow in a stream or prevent water from reaching the stream or waterbody further downstream in a catchment.

AWR 2005 defines diversions and extractions differently to water use. Water use is the end use or application of the water supplied, in terms of how it is used by the end user (e.g. water used for horticulture or industrial use). This is different to diversions and extractions, which define the water that is delivered, either through a reticulated system (supplied by an authority or company), or extracted by the landholder (through a groundwater bore or from pumping from an adjacent stream). The Australian Bureau of Statistics is compiling a comprehensive report on water use in Australia at a national, state and territory perspective and at a more detailed level for selected water management areas.

The availability of data on the level of surface water diversions varies greatly across Australia and tends to be best in regulated catchments with major water supply infrastructure, or in regions where requirements exist for water supply utilities and bulk suppliers to report diversion figures to state, territory or Australian government authorities. Conversely, the availability of data on surface water diversions in unregulated catchments is poor and, where available, is usually a rough estimate that is based on licence volumes or areas. Only a small proportion of surface water diversions are metered across the country, but metering programmes are currently being planned and implemented in most states and territories (where surface water diversions are significant).

The accompanying map shows the data provided on surface water diversions across Australia . Data are available for most of Australia , apart from approximately half of Queensland and New South Wales . There are no surface water diversion data for most of the unregulated surface water management areas in New South Wales , even though the surface water diversion in these areas is expected to be significant. Non-consumptive diversions (e.g. hydro-electricity) have not been included in the Tasmanian surface water diversion figures. In addition, in many parts of Australia (e.g. most of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory), the surface water diversions are minimal and hence the values shown in the accompanying map are estimates that are based on jurisdiction-supplied information for the purpose of creating a complete picture across Australia based on the data provided for the Level 1 Assessment by the states and territories.

Refer also to the tables below.

Surface water diversions July 2004 - June 2005

Download high resolution Map:

Surface water diversions July 2004 - June 2005 (1.6 Meg )

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Interactive Maps:

Click on the links below to create and customise your own versions of the maps (e.g. add or remove layers) using the Map Maker tool on the Australian Natural Resource Atlas website:

• ANRA Map Maker Surface Water data

Number of surface water management areas where surface water diversions are determined from metered data

Method used for determining surface water diversion for 200405 ( if NOT 100 percent metered)

Note: the sum of the methods used may be more than the number of surface water management areas that are not metered, because more than one calculation method was used for individual surface water management areas in some cases.

All of the surface water diversion data provided for Queensland surface water management areas are reported from metered data, but not all diversions are currently metered. As a result, the figures provided for Queensland do not include all diverters. Water meter data is not yet available for any of Tasmania 's surface water management areas. The diversion figures for most (43 of 48) of surface water management areas in Tasmania were estimated from licence volumes and for the remaining five surface water management areas of the state, the surface water diversions were estimated from power usage for pumps.

In Victoria , about a third of surface water management areas determined their surface water diversions by using metered data; the rest of the surface water management areas had a small proportion of metered data available. The impact from catchment farm dams (minor catchment storages) was estimated based on the outcomes of the Sustainable Diversion Limit Project, which estimated the volume of all catchment farm dams across Victoria (thereby enabling an estimate of use from farm dams based on a proportion of licence volume). Models to estimate surface water diversions were also used in some surface water management areas in Victoria .

There is currently no metering of surface water diversions in Western Australia , and the methods used to estimate surface water diversion included using estimated unlicensed diversion and, in some cases unused licence allocation.

While a large proportion of surface water diversions (in number terms) are not metered across Australia , most of the major (by volume) diversions are metered. In New South Wales, for example, the regulated systems are well metered and they represent the majority of water diversions by volume, whereas the unregulated systems are not well metered and can have many users (spread out over large geographical areas), but they are only a small proportion of the total diversions.

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