Irrigation - Overview
Australia
Irrigation at a glance
Australia is a large and dry continent with a climate that varies significantly with geographic location. Agricultural production in Australian is limited by rainfall, with additional water supply through irrigation significantly increasing productivity.
Irrigated production accounts for approximately 26% of the total gross value (50% of profit) of production from agriculture, which was estimated at $28.3 billion in 1996/97 (ABS Water Account, 2000). It is estimated that the value through processing beyond the farm gate is three to four times the value of the irrigated agriculture industry.
Trends in agriculture indicate that current growth industries include dairy, wine, cotton and horticulture, which are challenging the traditional perception of wool, wheat and beef as Australia's largest export earners.
National extent of irrigation
The total consumption of water for irrigation in Australia exceeds 70% of the developed water resources. In 1996/97, an estimated 17,935 GL of water was used to irrigate over 2,056,500 ha throughout Australia. Of this amount, pasture, livestock, grains and other agriculture accounted for 57% of the total agricultural consumption. Other significant consumers include the cotton (12%), sugar (8%), and rice (11%) industries (ABS Water Account, 2000).
The area irrigated has increased from 1,624,186 ha in 1985 to 2,056,580 ha in 1996/97, or 27%. Water usage for irrigation has increased by 7,700 GL/yr or 75% since 1985.
National irrigation challenges
- Access to water: There is an increasing importance of socio-economic and policy issues including property rights, water trading and supply and price risk management, as access to water is becoming more competitive.
- Improved communication networks: are considered to be critical to the sustainability of the irrigation industry. Irrigation water provider businesses are becoming more commercial, with a general move towards privatisation and corporatisation of irrigation areas throughout Australia. This has resulted in the fragmentation of the industry, necessitating effective communication and information exchange with stronger industry linkages through organisations such as the Australian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (ANCID), the Irrigation Association of Australia (IAA) and the Australian Water Association (AWA) - brought together under the Australian Water Industry Forum.
- Environmental management: has become a significant issue for the irrigation industry. The volume and timing of environmental flows; increasing salinity and turbidity of supply water; the impact of nutrients and pesticides on aquatic ecosystems, climatic variability; and salinisation of supply aquifers are examples of issues that the industry considers to be important.
- Water use efficiency: For a number of reasons, the efficiency of water use is clearly a critical issue. For example, the production of milk from 1ML of water on irrigated dairy farms ranges from 600 to 2,000 L within the Murray-Darling Basin. The increasing demand for limited water resources will almost certainly mean that less water will be available for irrigation in the future. As a consequence, improvements in water use efficiency, by reducing some or all of : (1) storage losses (both on and off-farm); (2) distribution losses (both on and off-farm); and (3) application losses (including deep drainage and surface runoff) have and will continue to be a major focus for the irrigation industry.
- Evaluation and reporting: The process of benchmarking the irrigation industry across Australia is becoming increasingly crucial to allow both the industry and political decision-makers to arrive at informed decisions regarding the irrigation industry. The collation, reporting and evaluation of irrigation industry data and information not only fosters continuous improvement in the industry, it is also important for the purposes of industry promotion and feedback to the wider community.
Reference: (NPIRD Phase 3 (1999-2002) Action Plan and Schedule) .
State / Territory overview
Australian Capital Territory
The area irrigated in the Australian Capital Territory has remained relatively the same over the years, with an estimated irrigation area of 250 hectares in 1996/97. Irrigation water use represents less than 1% of the total irrigation water use in Australia at an estimated 5.2 GL in 1996/97. Pasture is the main irrigated crop type.
New South Wales
The total area irrigated in New South Wales was 907,051 ha in 1996/97, which represents 44% of the total area of irrigated land in Australia. Irrigation water use represents 47% of the national irrigation water use at an estimated 8,643 GL in 1996/97. The main irrigated crop types include pasture, cotton and rice.
Northern Territory
The total area irrigated in the Northern Territory was 1,953 ha, which represents less than 1 % of the total area of irrigated land in Australia. Irrigation water use also represents less than 1 % of the national total at an estimated 53 GL in 1996/97. Fruit is the main irrigated crop types.
Queensland
The total area irrigated in Queensland was 403,775 ha in 1996/97, which represents 19 % of the total area of irrigated land in Australia. Irrigation water use represents 17 % of the national irrigation water use at an estimated 2,978 GL in 1996/97. The main irrigated crop types include sugar cane and cotton.
South Australia
The total area irrigated in South Australia was 115,479 ha in 1996/97, which represents 6 % of the total area of irrigated land in Australia. Irrigation water use represents 5 % of the national irrigation water use at an estimated 819 GL in 1996/97. The main irrigated crop types include pasture and grapevines.
Tasmania
The total area irrigated in Tasmania was 51,738 ha in 1996/97, which represents 3 % of the total area of irrigated land in Australia. Irrigation water use represents 2 % of the national irrigation water use at an estimated 276 GL in 1996/97. The main irrigated crop types include pasture and vegetables.
Victoria
The total area irrigated in Victoria was 546,067 ha in 1996/97, which represents 27 % of the total area of irrigated land in Australia. Irrigation water use represents 25 % of the national irrigation water use at an estimated 4,451 GL in 1996/97. Pasture is the main irrigated crop type.
Western Australia
The total area irrigated in Western Australia was 30,444 ha in 1996/97, which represents 1 % of the total area of irrigated land in Australia. Irrigation water use represents 4 % of the national irrigation water use at an estimated 710 GL in 1996/97. The main irrigated crop types include pasture, fruit and vegetables.
Murray Darling Basin overview
The total area of irrigated crops and pastures in the Murray-Darling Basin represents approximately 64% of Australia's total area of irrigated crops and pastures. The main irrigated enterprises in the Basin include rice, cotton, dairy, horticulture and viticulture. Water used for irrigation represents 75% of the total volume of water used for irrigation in Australia.
The Murray-Darling Basin Commission is developing an Irrigation Management and Reporting System that will provide access to irrigation data characterising the extent, location, value and efficiency of irrigation activities in the Basin. Data and information that is currently available on irrigation in the Basin has been compiled and presented on the Murray-Darling Basin web page.
Reporting scales
While the normal reporting scale of the MDB is catchment management areas , irrigation data is not collected at this scale. Irrigation data is available at several scales, depending on the data source. For example the ABS collected irrigated area data at the statistical local area (SLA) scale, while ANCID collects all of its data at the irrigation water provider scale. There are also several different years that data has been collected for, therefore care must be taken when comparing values from different data sources.
For the purposes of this atlas, the majority of the data is presented at its original scale, with exceptions being the irrigated area data, which has been collated from SLA scale to AWRC Basin scale and State and National summaries have been produced for all data sources.
Further information
Link to Map maker to make a map using this information.
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