I thought it would be interesting to compare Australia’s water supply and usage changes between 1977 and 2017.

Starting with the Murray-Darling in 1977, from the book “The first survey of water use in Australia”.

Overview.

1 megalitre = 1000 cubic metres.

Murray-Darling 1977
Area 1.063 million km^2
Population 1.547 million
Urban/industrial water use 337 gigalitres = 3%
Irrigation 10,700 gigalitres = 91%
Other rural water use 775 gigalitres = 6%

Australia-wide 1977
82% of water use is for agriculture. That’s a higher percentage than almost all other countries.

Note that water supply does not include farm dams or bores, but does include “private” surface and groundwater supplies.

That 10,700 gigalitres for irrigation is split between:
7,320 public surface water
2,900 private surface water
1 public groundwater
503 private groundwater

Water losses in irrigation, seepage and evaporation
Basin 403-407, 23% of 2840 gigalitres
Basin 409, 16% of 1400 gigalitres
Basin 408 & 415, 26% of 31 gigalitres
Basin 410 & 411, 18% of 2330 gigalitres
Basin 412, 21% of 126 gigalitres
Basin 414, 12% of 40 gigalitres

Basins 401 & 402 = Upper Murray and Kiewa Rivers (Wodonga)
Basins 403-407 = Ovens, Broken, Goulburn, Campese and Loddon Rivers (Bendigo, Shepparton, Wangaratta)
Basin 409 = Murray Riverina (Horsham)
Basins 408 & 415 = Avoca, Wimmera and Avon Rivers (Albury)
Basins 410 & 411 = Murrumbidgee River, Lake George and Canberra water supply (Canberra, Queanbeyan, Wagga Wagga, Griffith)
Basin 412 = Lachlan River (Parkes)
Basins 413, 425 & 426 = Benanee, Darling River and Lower Murray (Broken Hill, Murray Bridge)
Basin 414 = Mallee in Vic & SA (Mildura)
Basin 416, 418 & 419 = Border Rivers in Qld & NSW, Gwydir River and Namoi River (Tamworth, Inverell, Moree)
Basin 417 & 422 = Moonie, Condamine and Culgoa Rivers in Qld & NSW (Toowoomba)
Basin 420 & 421 = Castlereagh, Macquarie and Bogan Rivers (Orange, Dubbo, Bathurst)
Basin 423 & 424 = Warrego and Paroo Rivers (Charleville)

Information is given in the report for 1977 total and per capita usage, domestic, commercial, industrial and other usages in the cities of
Sydney + Wollongong, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Newcastle, Canberra
“Other usage” includes water leaks and fire-fighting

Comparison of water supply to water use. Murray-Darling in 1977
Surface Water use 11,000 gigalitres = 60%
Surface Water available 18,372 gigalitres
Storage evaporation losses 1,184 gigalitres
Groundwater use 778 gigalitres = 39%
Groundwater estimated annual recharge = 2002 gigalitres

>Australia-wide 1977

that was a terrible drought that year, here.

water here back then was very cheap, so cheap as to be little or no disincentive to wastage, from leaks re typical agriculture here, and I have in mind reticulated water mainly for stock, originating from mains/utility (private bores too need mention). And domestic, including gardens, little disincentive to over-consumption or wastage existed.

water is priced now and has been for quite a while at about what it should be.

prices tightened up use/efficiency, in response to demands on supply. Supply capacity includes things like recharge. Recharge for basins are in reality less reliable (for purpose) as extraction rates exceed it over longer periods. Same of other sources.

not unrelated, that idea above applies to climate variability/stability in some way also, though i’d have to think about it more to make sense of it. My three neurons may not be up to that.

>that was a terrible drought that year, here.

well, it was until September, so for most of the crop growing season.

Were you going to compare that data to 2017?

Kothos said:

Were you going to compare that data to 2017?

Yes.

I found what I thought was an equivalent report from 2016, but the hyperlinks just led me in a circle. Will keep trying.

The available water was based on an “average year”. Not specifically 1977. Thanks for noticing.

Darn. Why is the Australian Bureau of statistics so totally useless?

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4610.02016-17?OpenDocument

There is a report on Australian water usage financial year 2016/7. But the data is divided up state by state, year by year, and agricultural use is divided up crop by crop.

No information on any river catchment. No information on any city. No information on irrigation vs other agricultural. No information on usage vs availability. Even for what little is in the document – a large fraction is marked “not available for publication” ie, commercial in confidence. No information on usage per capita. No information on evaporation and seepage losses. No separation between surface water and groundwater,

Or to put it another way, not a single way to compare that information with the 1977 data.

Despite splitting crops up by type, there’s not even a mention of cotton or rice. Rice, for instance, is bundled together with wheat, sheep and beef. But the data does have a special row for water usage by deer farming – it’s zero.

mollwollfumble said:

Darn. Why is the Australian Bureau of statistics so totally useless?

Because someone doesn’t want you to know.

https://youtu.be/oPBqk-0gWfQ

when the levee breaks

It is all a stairway leading nowhere

mollwollfumble said:

Darn. Why is the Australian Bureau of statistics so totally useless?

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4610.02016-17?OpenDocument

There is a report on Australian water usage financial year 2016/7. But the data is divided up state by state, year by year, and agricultural use is divided up crop by crop.

No information on any river catchment. No information on any city. No information on irrigation vs other agricultural. No information on usage vs availability. Even for what little is in the document – a large fraction is marked “not available for publication” ie, commercial in confidence. No information on usage per capita. No information on evaporation and seepage losses. No separation between surface water and groundwater,

Or to put it another way, not a single way to compare that information with the 1977 data.

Despite splitting crops up by type, there’s not even a mention of cotton or rice. Rice, for instance, is bundled together with wheat, sheep and beef. But the data does have a special row for water usage by deer farming – it’s zero.

More from the near-useless ABS document. The only direct comparison I can get between 1977 and 2017 is this. Water usage for the whole of Australia, agriculture and total. The total water usage is not much different between 1977 and 2017. The agricultural water usage is down. This graph does not tell you how much is wasted.

Comparing water use in recent years in NSW: mining, manufacturing, household and agriculture.

Kothos said:

Were you going to compare that data to 2017?

This is better. Instead of what is effectively 2 pages from the ABS on water usage in 2016-7, here is a 76 page document from the BOM on water supply and usage.

http://www.bom.gov.au/water/waterinaustralia/

http://www.bom.gov.au/water/waterinaustralia/files/Water-in-Australia-2016-17.pdf

It still doesn’t have everything I want, it doesn’t mention irrigation, rice, cotton or other crops. It doesn’t compare water usage to available water (certainly not for groundwater)

It does have some particularly interesting facts.

• Rainfall over all the Murray-Darling catchment in 2016-7 was the highest ever since records began (since 1911) so stop talking about “drought”.

• In 2016-7, Melbourne was using desalinated water.

• In 2016-7, Perth’s water supply used no surface water at all, because all the surface waters were highly saline. Its water supply was almost equally divided between groundwater and desalinated seawater.

The report does talk a lot about the Murray-Darling basin, so stay tuned for more.

2016-7 had a wet start to the year.

A list of all of Australia’s major water storages. Civil Engineers take note.

Surface water salinity is startlingly bad in Perth.

Desalination plants capacity and usage Australia-wide.

One for roughbarked.

Down from 82% for agriculture in 1977.

No surface water at all in Perth.

Another one for roughbarked.

I also found this website. http://www.bom.gov.au/water/nwa/2018/

A detailed account of water in the Murray-Darling basin is due in Feb 2019. ie. Now. !!

mollwollfumble said:

I thought it would be interesting to compare Australia’s water supply and usage changes between 1977 and 2017.

Starting with the Murray-Darling in 1977, from the book “The first survey of water use in Australia”.

Overview.

1 megalitre = 1000 cubic metres.

Murray-Darling 1977
Area 1.063 million km^2
Population 1.547 million
Urban/industrial water use 337 gigalitres = 3%
Irrigation 10,700 gigalitres = 91%
Other rural water use 775 gigalitres = 6%

Australia-wide 1977
82% of water use is for agriculture. That’s a higher percentage than almost all other countries.

Note that water supply does not include farm dams or bores, but does include “private” surface and groundwater supplies.

That 10,700 gigalitres for irrigation is split between:
7,320 public surface water
2,900 private surface water
1 public groundwater
503 private groundwater

Water losses in irrigation, seepage and evaporation
Basin 403-407, 23% of 2840 gigalitres
Basin 409, 16% of 1400 gigalitres
Basin 408 & 415, 26% of 31 gigalitres
Basin 410 & 411, 18% of 2330 gigalitres
Basin 412, 21% of 126 gigalitres
Basin 414, 12% of 40 gigalitres

Basins 401 & 402 = Upper Murray and Kiewa Rivers (Wodonga)
Basins 403-407 = Ovens, Broken, Goulburn, Campese and Loddon Rivers (Bendigo, Shepparton, Wangaratta)
Basin 409 = Murray Riverina (Horsham)
Basins 408 & 415 = Avoca, Wimmera and Avon Rivers (Albury)
Basins 410 & 411 = Murrumbidgee River, Lake George and Canberra water supply (Canberra, Queanbeyan, Wagga Wagga, Griffith)
Basin 412 = Lachlan River (Parkes)
Basins 413, 425 & 426 = Benanee, Darling River and Lower Murray (Broken Hill, Murray Bridge)
Basin 414 = Mallee in Vic & SA (Mildura)
Basin 416, 418 & 419 = Border Rivers in Qld & NSW, Gwydir River and Namoi River (Tamworth, Inverell, Moree)
Basin 417 & 422 = Moonie, Condamine and Culgoa Rivers in Qld & NSW (Toowoomba)
Basin 420 & 421 = Castlereagh, Macquarie and Bogan Rivers (Orange, Dubbo, Bathurst)
Basin 423 & 424 = Warrego and Paroo Rivers (Charleville)

Information is given in the report for 1977 total and per capita usage, domestic, commercial, industrial and other usages in the cities of
Sydney + Wollongong, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Newcastle, Canberra
“Other usage” includes water leaks and fire-fighting

Comparison of water supply to water use. Murray-Darling in 1977
Surface Water use 11,000 gigalitres = 60%
Surface Water available 18,372 gigalitres
Storage evaporation losses 1,184 gigalitres
Groundwater use 778 gigalitres = 39%
Groundwater estimated annual recharge = 2002 gigalitres

…

http://www.bom.gov.au/water/waterinaustralia/

I’m still trying to get a direct comparison with more recent years.

The above link leads through to http://www.bom.gov.au/water/rwi/#wu_tt_2014/001/2014 and pages accessible from that.
Water usage for river catchments (agricultural & urban) is available through that for financial year 2013-4, not more recently.

The following is a summary table by catchment for usages greater than 100 GL in 1973-4. I think “irrigation” includes all agricultural use.

Having trouble matching up river basins from 2013-2014 to those from 1977. At first sight they look similar, but in detail they’re quite different.

Those from 1977 are identified by number, and are unaffected by state boundaries.Those from 2014 are identified by name, sometimes are limited by state boundaries, and there’s no chart to match names to regions on the map. Those from 1977 make more sense.

1977

2013-4

The names for the regions in the 2013-4 chart are: … Can you match names to rivers? This is the list of names.