1.5.1.2 Groundwater


1.5.1.2.1 Current water accounts

Product 1.5 provides information on groundwater allocations and an estimate of groundwater usage within the Galilee subregion. Actual measured groundwater usage data are not readily available for bores in the Galilee subregion. A groundwater bore may be required to be metered as part of its water licence conditions. While all bores are registered, not all bores require a licensed water allocation.

Licensed water allocations

Water resource plans (WRPs), groundwater management areas (GMAs), and declared sub-artesian areas have specific rules on what triggers a requirement for a water licence.

Conditions that may trigger a requirement for a water licence include:

  • the bore is artesian; regardless of purpose for which the water will be used
  • the bore is sub-artesian (non-flowing) and is located within a declared sub-artesian area or a groundwater management area
  • sub-artesian (non-flowing) bore is regulated by a water resource plan, specifically the Great Artesian Basin Water Resource Plan (GAB WRP)
  • a bore is likely to require a licence if water is to be used for a purpose other than stock and domestic.

In unregulated areas, sub-artesian water can be taken without a licence.

Water licence data for Queensland were obtained from the Bureau of Meteorology (Bioregional Assessment Programme, Dataset 1). Figure 4 shows the distribution of water licence allocations to groundwater bores within the Galilee subregion. The licensed water allocations represent the maximum amount that can be taken for a particular licence. How much is actually used is not available.

In total 2281 bores have a water licence allocated to them. This is in contrast to the number of operational bores recorded in Queensland groundwater bore database, which is 4712 bores. The total volume of licensed groundwater allocations within the Galilee subregion equates to 19 GL/year drawn from 2281 bores, of which 18.5 GL/year is drawn from within the GAB WRP area. Further information on GAB WRP is available in Evans et al. (2014) and Queensland Government (2014a, 2014b).

Figure 4

Figure 4 Distribution of groundwater licence allocations (ML/year) per bore across the Galilee subregion

A value of zero means the licence does not specify a volume. The vast majority of bores with no allocation are used for stock and domestic purposes.

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1)

An estimate of current groundwater usage

Most bores in the Galilee subregion do not operate under a groundwater licensing arrangement. Thus, summarising groundwater licence allocations can significantly underestimate the annual groundwater withdrawals from aquifer systems. A dataset (Bioregional Assessment Programme, Dataset 2) for estimating yearly groundwater use from all bores, in ML/year, was compiled using the following steps:

  1. Relevant bore data in the Galilee subregion was compiled from the Queensland groundwater database extract dated 28 August 2014 (Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Dataset 3).
  2. for each bore, where data are available, incorporate interpreted stratigraphic picks for screened intervals into the dataset
  3. for each bore, where data are available, incorporate the most recent standing water level and bore maximum discharge data into the dataset. Maximum discharge will need to be re-calculated from L/second to ML/year
  4. from the water licence dataset, incorporate the licensed water allocation volume, bore use and GMA information
  5. investigate the bore facility status records. Bore facility status categories include: existing; abandoned but usable; abandoned and destroyed and proposed. Only those classed as ‘existing’ or ‘abandoned but usable’ were kept in the dataset. It is assumed that bores in other categories are not functional
  6. interrogate bore use records. Remove any bore from the dataset that is tagged as a monitoring bore. It is assumed that monitoring bores are not being used for any purpose other than groundwater monitoring
  7. insert two new blank columns, ‘BA groundwater usage’ and ‘groundwater use source’ in the dataset. The ‘BA groundwater usage’ column is where the estimate for annual groundwater usage is recorded for a bore in ML/year. The ‘groundwater use source’ column is where the decision on how yearly groundwater usage is assigned is recorded
  8. populate the ‘BA groundwater usage’ and ‘groundwater use source’ columns.

Steps to estimate groundwater usage for each bore are:

  1. populate the BA groundwater usage column with water licence allocations that are greater than 0 ML/year. While the full allocation may not actually be used, this will provide a maximum allowable water allocation that could be pumped from a particular area. This has the potential to conserve the unused allocations when estimating groundwater usage for an area
  2. sub-artesian bores – 5 ML/year or bore maximum flow rate, whichever is least (D Larsen (Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines), 2014, pers. comm.)
  3. controlled artesian bore – 30 ML/year or the maximum flow rate, whichever is least (D Larsen (Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines), 2014, pers. comm.)
  4. uncontrolled artesian bore – use the bore flow rate in ML/year (D Larsen (Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines), 2014, pers. comm.)
  5. uncontrolled artesian bores missing flow rate and standing water level information – the average flow rate for all uncontrolled artesian bores located within the Galilee subregion was calculated from existing data. The average was then assigned as nominal value for uncontrolled artesian bores with no flow rate data. For Galilee subregion this equated to 124 ML/year.

Using the methods as described above, it was estimated that 75,229 ML/year are extracted across the Galilee subregion from 4712 bores. Figure 5 shows distribution of estimated groundwater usage per bore across the Galilee subregion. It is difficult to ascertain uncertainty for this estimate without having some actual groundwater usage data for comparison.

Groundwater withdrawals by proposed resource developments are not included in this estimate, as the water licensing requirements are yet to be finalised. Further detail on the projected water requirements for the proposed coal and coal seam gas developments will be outlined in companion product 2.3 for the Galilee subregion.

Table 6 shows the number of bores broken down by the licensed purpose. Stock and/or domestic supply purpose was the largest user of groundwater with an estimated 37 GL/year from 2135 bores, followed by town water supply with 42 bores and 8.3 GL/year. An estimated 20 GL/year is drawn from 2434 bores for which no specific purpose was specified in available data. It is likely that the majority of bores with no specified purpose are used for stock and/or domestic.

Figure 6 shows the distribution of bores for each purpose across the subregion.

Table 6 Estimated groundwater usage by purpose for the Galilee subregion


Purpose

Number of bores

Estimated volume

(ML/year)

Aquaculturea

11

1,944

Construction/roadworks

1

2

Domestic supplyb

47

3,176

Firefighting

2

10

Industrial

1

400

Irrigationc

39

4,124

Town water supply

42

8,300

Stock and/or Domesticd

2135

37,018

Not specified

2434

20,255

Total

4712

75,229

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

aMay also include domestic, stock, stock intensive, irrigation or industrial

bMay also include industrial, irrigation, stock or firefighting

cMay also include stock and domestic

dMay include stock intensive

Figure 5

Figure 5 Estimate of groundwater usage per bore across the Galilee subregion

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

Figure 6

Figure 6 Distribution of purpose of bores in the Galilee subregion

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

Table 7 shows number of bores and an estimated volume withdrawn annually on a per aquifer basis. The largest estimated withdrawals on an annual basis occur from the Hutton-Precipice aquifer system, followed by withdrawals from Wyandra-Hooray aquifer system. Notably a significant number of bores (33%) had insufficient data to be able to determine which aquifer system the bore was drawing water.

Figure 7 shows the distribution of bores for each aquifer.

Table 7 Estimate of groundwater usage per aquifer for the Galilee subregion


Aquifer

Total number of bores

Volume

(ML/year)

Alluvium

89

602

Basement

3

15

Betts Creek beds

50

298

Cenozoic

132

1,167

Dunda-Rewan

8

90

Hutton-Precipice

656

23,407

Injune Creek Group

272

4,546

Joe Joe Group

37

185

Moolayember Formation

56

525

Ronlow beds

358

5,262

Wallumbilla Formation

242

1,873

Warang-Clematis Group

157

1,445

Winton-Mackunda Formation

489

2,944

Wyandra-Hooray Sandstone

629

17,228

No stratigraphic data

1534

15,642

Total

4712

75,229

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

In the Galilee subregion, estimated flows from uncontrolled artesian bores ranged from 4 to 1090 ML/year, with an average of 124 ML/year.

Figure 7

Figure 7 Interpretation showing which aquifer a bore draws groundwater from in the Galilee subregion

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

1.5.1.2.2 Water management

Water sharing plans in Queensland are known as water resource plans (WRPs). With the exception of the GAB WRP, WRP areas are defined by surface catchment areas. While seven WRPs cover the Galilee subregion, most bores fall under the GAB WRP. This reduces the number of WRPs of interest to three. These are the GAB WRP (consisting of 13 GMAs), the Fitzroy WRP and the Burdekin WRP. Only portions of these WRPs lie within the Galilee subregion. Figure 8 shows distribution of bores in relation to the three WRPs.

The Galilee subregion encompasses portions of several GMAs (Figure 9). No GMA is completely included within the Galilee subregion. All except two of the GMAs are included as a part the GAB WRP. The GAB WRP includes Warang-Clematis Group and Dunda-Rewan Group aquifers as well as aquifers in the overlying Eromanga Basin.

For the WRPs of interest, Table 8 to Table 11 provides a breakdown of the number of bores and estimated usage in ML/year per aquifer for the Galilee subregion.

Further information on WRPs in the Galilee subregion is available in Section 1.1.4.4 in companion product 1.1 for the Galilee subregion (Evans et al. 2014).

Water trades can only take place using a granted water licence, for which the intended purpose is non-stock and domestic. There is provision in the GAB WRP for temporary and permanent trading (Queensland Government, 2014a). Queensland Government (2014b) details some recent legislative amendments to the GAB WRP.

Queensland Government (2014c) provides data on water trades that occurred under the auspices of the GAB WRP, from 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2014. These data suggest that there have been no water trades in the GAB WRP area that lies within the Galilee subregion. These data show that bulk of water trades under the GAB WRP occurred to the east of the Galilee subregion, in the geological Surat Basin. There are currently no rules in place for trading in the Highlands sub-artesian area in the Burdekin WRP (Queensland Government, 2014d) or the Highlands GMA and Carnarvon GMA in the Fitzroy WRP area (Queensland Government, 2014e).

Figure 8

Figure 8 Distribution of bores in the three major water resource plan areas in the Galilee subregion

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

Figure 9

Figure 9 Distribution of groundwater management areas across the Great Artesian Basin for the Galilee subregion

Data: Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines (Dataset 4)

Table 8 Estimated groundwater use per water resource plan area within the Galilee subregion


Water resource plan area

Number of bores

Volume (ML/year)

Burdekin Catchment Water Resource Plan Area

196

1,772

Fitzroy Catchment Water Resource Plan Area

147

837

Great Artesian Basin Water Resource Plan Area

4369

72,621

Total

4712

75,229

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

Table 9 Estimated groundwater use per aquifer for the portion of Burdekin water resource plan that lies within the Galilee subregion


Aquifer

Number of bores

Volume (ML/year)

Alluvium

9

45

Early Paleozoic Basement

2

10

Betts Creek beds

13

65

Cenozoic

12

142

Dunda-Rewan

3

65

Joe Joe Group

13

65

Warang-Clematis Group

3

15

No stratigraphic data

141

1365

Total

196

1772

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

Table 10 Estimated groundwater use per aquifer for the portion of Fitzroy water resource plan area that lies within the Galilee subregion


Aquifer

Number of bores

Volume (ML/year)

Early Paleozoic Basement

1

5

Betts Creek beds

29

182

Cenozoic

4

60

Joe Joe Group

21

105

No stratigraphic data

92

485

Total

147

837

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

Table 11 Estimated groundwater use per aquifer for the portion of Great Artesian Basin Water Resource Plan area that lies within the Galilee subregion


Aquifer

Number of bores

Volume

(ML/year)

Alluvium

80

557

Betts Creek beds

8

52

Cenozoic

116

965

Dunda-Rewan

5

25

Hutton-Precipice

656

23,407

Injune Creek Group

272

4,546

Joe Joe Group

3

15

Moolayember Formation

56

525

Ronlow beds

358

5,262

Wallumbilla Formation

242

1,873

Warang-Clematis Group

154

1,430

Winton-Mackunda Formation

489

2,944

Wyandra-Hooray Sandstone

629

17,228

No stratigraphic data

1301

13,792

Total

4369

72,621

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 2)

1.5.1.2.3 Gaps

Information on stratigraphy and screened intervals for bores missing those data would improve the groundwater use estimates on a per aquifer basis. Further investigation of hydrochemistry and groundwater levels may also assist in determining which aquifer a bore is screened in.

For bores with water licences, if actual usage data was to become available this would assist in provision of a more accurate representation of the distribution of groundwater use for some bores within the Galilee subregion.

For uncontrolled artesian bores that are missing flow rate information, 124 ML/year was used as a nominal value as per the steps for estimating groundwater usage as previously outlined in Section 1.5.1.2.1. Actual flow rates from uncontrolled artesian bores would provide a better estimate.

Last updated:
12 December 2018