1.3.3.2 Gaps

Queensland entitlement volumes may not represent total extraction due to the exclusions that exist under Queensland’s Water Act 2000, where entitlements are not required for stock/domestic and other low risk activities for surface water. Similarly, extraction of groundwater does not require an entitlement unless specified under a water resource plan, Wild River Declaration, moratorium area or under the Water Regulation 2002 (NWC, 2014).

Data for surface water and groundwater access entitlements were extracted from the NSW Office of Water licensing system in November 2013 and the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines water access entitlements were extracted in December 2013. The total volume of entitlements is not expected to change significantly on a monthly basis, therefore the difference in timing is considered immaterial.

Floodplain harvesting has been identified in other NSW bioregions as economic assets. Floodplain harvesting water storages are in the process of being digitised by the NSW Office of Water, but were not available for inclusion in the water-dependent asset register at this time.

Many of the economic asset polygons in NSW include a negligible portion of the entire asset polygon within the PAE, which is mostly an artefact of the GIS overlaying process. Therefore, many of these NSW economic assets are included in the asset database, even if only a negligible portion of a polygon overlaps within the PAE.

The surface water access entitlement data received from NSW Office of Water do not include details of the river reach where the offtake was located, instead they include the water source and water management zone associated with the WSP. A water source can be any set of rivers, aquifers or lakes and the like, which are defined by a gazetted WSP to be a water source. Therefore when the elements are aggregated into the asset, water access entitlements are grouped together across the water source area (a large polygon). This will need to be taken into account when assigning receptor locations as the water source may include multiple river reaches and potentially multiple river branches.

Last updated:
5 January 2018