1.3.3.1 Description

The total number of economic water-dependent assets in the preliminary assessment extent (PAE) of the Arckaringa subregion is 47 (comprising 7009 elements). This includes one surface water access entitlement and one groundwater access entitlement, both in SA. There are also 31 water supply and monitoring infrastructure assets in SA. In the NT, there are also two assets that are groundwater features forming parts of the Great Artesian Basin. All assets are water dependent.

A water access right is defined as a perpetual or ongoing entitlement to exclusive access to a share of water from a specified consumptive pool as defined in the relevant water plan (Council of Australian Governments, 2004). Water access rights are tradeable with land in a bundled system, or may be tradeable without land in an unbundled system. The consumptive pool may be a body of groundwater or an interconnected set of surface water bodies. For a groundwater pool, access is by bores for domestic, stock, irrigation and/or other commercial uses, or for town water supplies. For surface waters, access is direct by pumping from a river or lake. Pool size and access right allocation of consumptive rights are subject to planning and management within zones, as used here to group the individual elements representing single bores and pumping locations into assets. Within the Arckaringa subregion, one water access right is for the bore that supplies the township of Oodnadatta, and the remainder are bores that supply pastoral stations.

A basic water right (stock and domestic) is a water right held by a rural landowner for domestic, on-farm purposes (Department of the Environment, 2015). Stock purposes are watering stock of a number that would normally be depastured on the land on which the water is used, including pets. Domestic purposes include use within a house and for irrigating a garden not exceeding 0.25 ha, cultivated for domestic use rather than sale. Stock and domestic does not include use for dairies, piggeries, feed lots, poultry or any other intensive or commercial use. They may apply to domestic and farm bores, or to pumps in rivers and lakes. In the Arckaringa subregion, all basic water rights are for bores on pastoral stations.

Table 10 shows the breakdown of water access entitlements (economic elements) for groundwater and surface water in the Arckaringa PAE. The locations of the economic assets are shown in Figure 18 and Figure 19.

Table 10 Summary of water-dependent economic assets in the Arckaringa subregion asset register

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1)

Figure 18 Location of water-dependent assets in the preliminary assessment extent (PAE) of the Arckaringa subregion: basic water rights (stock and domestic) and water access rights (all groundwater assets)

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1)

Figure 19 Location of water-dependent assets in the preliminary assessment extent (PAE) of the Arckaringa subregion: Water Asset Information Tool (WAIT) database assets (water supply and monitoring infrastructure assets - bores and dams)

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1)