1.3.3.1 Description


There are 69 economic assets comprising 1224 elements within the Gwydir subregion and they are all considered water dependent. The economic assets represent groupings of economic elements. Economic elements are defined as groundwater and surface water ‘water access right’ and ‘basic water right (stock and domestic)’. Within the asset database, elements are grouped by type and spatial location to create assets (see Section 1.3.1.2).

Water access rights are licensed whereas basic water rights (stock and domestic) are share components included in basic landholder rights; both are covered under water sharing plans (WSPs; NSW Department of Primary Industries, 2015). Share components are water access entitlements that are a specified share or volume of water that can be extracted within a specified water management area.

These entitlements are represented spatially by:

  • location of surface water offtake points and groundwater bores (point features)
  • watercourse segments (line features)
  • water access rights that do not require a works approval. These are included in the water-dependent asset register by assigning the water access right to the water source area (polygon features).

In the Gwydir subregion, there are 46 assets (845 elements) within the ‘Surface water management zone or area’ subgroup comprising 16 water access right and 30 basic water right (stock and domestic) entitlements (Table 11). The locations of the economic surface water assets are shown in Figure 8.

There are 23 assets (379 elements) within the ‘Groundwater management zone or area’ subgroup comprising 10 water access right and 13 basic water right (stock and domestic) entitlements (Table 11). The locations of the economic groundwater assets are shown in Figure 9. It shows the groundwater access rights as being mainly clustered around Moree with additional locations in the south and east of the subregion.

The asset list and other details are available from the water-dependent asset register and asset list (Bruce and O'Grady, 2016) and the asset database (Bioregional Assessment Programme, Dataset 1).

Table 11 Summary of the economic assets within the Gwydir subregion


Subgroup

Asset class

Number of elements in water-dependent asset register

Number of assets in water-dependent asset register

Groundwater management zone or area (surface area)

Water access right

366

10

Basic water right (stock and domestic)

13

13

Surface water management zone or area (surface area)

Water access right

815

16

Basic water right (stock and domestic)

30

30

Total

1224

69

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1)

Figure 8

Figure 8 Location of surface water access right and basic water right (stock and domestic) economic assets in the Gwydir subregion

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1 and Dataset 3) and NSW Office of Water (Dataset 4)

Figure 9

Figure 9 Location of groundwater water access right and basic water right (stock and domestic) economic assets in the Gwydir subregion

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1 and Dataset 2) and NSW Office of Water (Dataset 4)

Last updated:
5 January 2018