Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

Water resources - Allocation and Use - Queensland

Location map of SWMA Olive / Pascoe Rivers

Basin and Surface Water Management Area: Olive / Pascoe Rivers

Introduction

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The National Water Reform Framework requires the development of comprehensive systems of water allocations or entitlements, backed by separation of water property rights from land and clear specification of entitlements in terms of ownership, volume, reliability, transferability and, if appropriate, quality. In addition State and Territory agencies are required to undertake formal determination of water allocations or entitlements, including allocations for the environment as a legitimate user of water.

Water use estimates have been derived from a number of different methods including the use of licencing systems, information provided as part of the Australian Bureau of Statistics water account (with provider consent) and other information gathered from the State and Territory water agencies. In some cases water use was assumed to be the same as the allocation. For groundwater systems, it is well known that this assumption is often invalid (e.g. typically where use exceeds allocation significantly).

Options for conjunctive use are also described.

Please note: The tables set out below detailing Level 1 and Level 2 water use categories. The sum of the Level 2 water use volumes will not necessarily equal the total Level 1 water use volumes. This is primarily due to lack of more detailed water use data. However, where Level 2 use = Level 1 use then blank cells in the table does not indicate water use unaccounted for in these categories.

How has water used changed since 1985?

Use type1983-84 surface water use (ML/yr)1996-97 surface water use (ML/yr)% change
Totalno data0
Irrigationno data0 no data
- fruitN/Ano data
- grapeN/Ano data
- system lossN/Ano data
- sugarN/Ano data
- otherN/Ano data
- pastureN/Ano data
- cerealN/Ano data
- vegetablesN/Ano data
- other cropN/Ano data
- CottonN/Ano data
Urban / Industrialno data0 no data
- municipalN/Ano data
- coalN/Ano data
- domestic unlicensedN/Ano data
- domesticN/Ano data
- miningN/Ano data
- industrialN/Ano data
- powerN/Ano data
- comercialN/Ano data
- system lossN/Ano data
- industrial commercialN/Ano data
- otherN/Ano data
- recreationN/Ano data
Ruralno data0 no data
- aquacultureN/Ano data
- system lossN/Ano data
- otherN/Ano data
- water supplyN/Ano data
- stock domesticN/Ano data

PLEASE NOTE

Changes since 1985:

1985 Mean Annual Flow

This basin had a useful length of streamflow records for an area greater than about one third of the basin area. Useful, in this context, was defined as generally not less than 10 years.

Streamflow records in the catchment were adjusted using mean annual rainfall to produce mean annual discharge for the fifty year period from 1920 to 1969.

Ungauged streamflows were estimated using rainfall standardised to the fifty year period from 1920 to 1969 and regional rainfall runoff curves.

2000 Mean Annual Flow

For this SWMA gauged measurements are available for more than 10 years and a Sacramento Model was developed for the most downstream gauge (102102) with a suitable length of record. The calibrated parameters for the gauged catchment were then applied to the whole catchment with the catchment rainfall for the period 1900 to 1999 and the Mean Annual Runoff calculated.

The resulting SWMA catchment runoff is 3216000ML/yr compared with the 1985 Audit runoff of 4248000ML/yr.

Divertible Yield

In 1985 this was determined by identification of possible storage sites and yield assessment of storage sites not previously analysed using a Gould Gamma method.

Development carried out since the 1985 study has shown this method and the selection of storage sites to be inappropriate for this study. Water Allocation Management Plans (WAMP) and Water Management Plans (WMP) are currently being developed for much of Queensland and consequentially no response has been included in this study.

 

What are the uses of surface water in Olive / Pascoe Rivers and to what is it allocated?

Use typeDiversion Volume (ML/yr)Allocation (ML/yr)Diversion: Alloc (%)
Total00
Irrigation00
Rural00
Urban / Industrial00

Allocation for each SWMA represents the volume of the management area's surface water resources allocated for use both within the basin and for use in other SWMAs. The volume diverted is the total volume of the SWMA's surface water resources diverted for use both within the management area and for export to other management areas.

What are the sources of water within Olive / Pascoe Rivers?

Total useML/yr %
Surface water - from this area0
Surface water - imported into this areano data
GMU: Great Artesian Basin - Gulf - Queensland no data100

PLEASE NOTE :

Options for conjunctive use:

The Olive-Pascoe SWMA is intersected by one artesian (Great Artesian Basin (GAB)) Groundwater Management Unit (GMU), which has estimated abstraction. There is therefore potential for joint water use although no surface water use data is available for the SWMA.

GAB GMUs are generally connected to the SWMA by management only, and the level of connectivity is considered to be low. The exception to this generalisation occurs in the recharge areas of the GAB where a physical connection to the SWMA is also present and the level of connectivity is considered medium.

Further information

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