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Water resources - Allocation and Use - South Australia

Specify a region: -- select region -- Broughton River Coopers Creek Diamantina River Eyre Peninsula Finke River Fleurieu Peninsula Gairdner Gawler River Georgina River Hay River Kangaroo Island Lake Frome Lake Torrens Lower Murray River Mackay Mallee Mambray Coast Millicent Coast Myponga River Nullarbor Onkaparinga River Spencer Gulf Torrens River Wakefield River Warburton Willochra Creek Adelaide Geosyncline Eyre Penninsula Gawler Great Artesian Mt Lofty-Flinders Ranges Murray Musgrave Officer Otways Pirie-Torrens St Vincent Yorke Peninsula Broughton River Cooper Creek (SA) Diamantina River (SA) Finke River (SA) Gawler River Gawler River - Sub Catchment Little Para Georgina River (SA) Glenelg River (SA) Hay River (SA) Lake Frome (SA) Light River Lower Murray River (SA), Sub Catchment 1 Lower Murray River (SA), Sub Catchment 2 Mackay (SA) Mallee (SA) Millicent Coast (SA), Sub Catchment 1 Millicent Coast (SA), Sub Catchment 2 Millicent Coast (SA), Sub Catchment 3 Millicent Coast (SA), Sub Catchment 4 Nullarbor (SA) Warburton (SA) Yorke Peninsula

Drainage Basin: Gawler River

Introduction

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.

This drainage basin comprises the following Surface Water Management Areas:

(SWMA) - Gawler River	South Australia
(SWMA) - Gawler River - Sub Catchment Little Para	South Australia
(SWMA) - Light River	South Australia

Further information about surface water use and allocation may be found, by selecting one of these regions, or clicking on the map above.

How has water used changed since 1985?

Use type	1983-84 surface water use (ML/yr)	1996-97 surface water use (ML/yr)	% change
Total	9,920	69,895
Irrigation	2,140	3,770	76
- fruit	N/A	100
- grape	N/A	2,860
- system loss	N/A	no data
- sugar	N/A	no data
- other	N/A	no data
- pasture	N/A	500
- cereal	N/A	no data
- vegetables	N/A	100
- other crop	N/A	no data
- Cotton	N/A	no data
Urban / Industrial	2,950	7,585	157
- municipal	N/A	no data
- coal	N/A	no data
- domestic unlicensed	N/A	no data
- domestic	N/A	no data
- mining	N/A	no data
- industrial	N/A	no data
- power	N/A	no data
- comercial	N/A	no data
- system loss	N/A	no data
- industrial commercial	N/A	no data
- other	N/A	no data
- recreation	N/A	no data
Rural	5,960	2,261	-62
- aquaculture	N/A	no data
- system loss	N/A	no data
- other	N/A	no data
- water supply	N/A	no data
- stock domestic	N/A	2,261

PLEASE NOTE

Changes since 1985:

In 1985 the Little Para catchment was aggregated in the 504 SWMA and no comparative data is available.

 

Further information

• South Australia Water Resources Assessment 2000 Report
• South Australia Water Resources Assessment 2000 Technical Report
• Link to data available for download on the Surface Water Management Areas
• Link to the Map Maker to make a map using this information.