So the Great Artesian Basin, fresh water, covers about a quarter of the Australian continent.

What about the rest of the country? Are there other large artesian basins?

Also, is it possible to have salty artesian water, and if so are there large amounts of it in other parts of the country?

party_pants said:

So the Great Artesian Basin, fresh water, covers about a quarter of the Australian continent.

What about the rest of the country? Are there other large artesian basins?

Well none as large as the GAB but there are some that could be considered large. The Yarragadee Aquifer out this way covers some ground and can be considered an artesian basin, mostly.

Also, is it possible to have salty artesian water

Yeah it’s possible.

A football ground down my way in Brisbane put down a bore to water the oval.
Worked well for a few months then it went saline and killed all the grass.

Even though the basin is large not all of the water in it is fresh. The cap the bores project was carried out to prevent the salinity created by running them constantly. A lot of bore water is undrinkable.

roughbarked said:

Even though the basin is large not all of the water in it is fresh. The cap the bores project was carried out to prevent the salinity created by running them constantly. A lot of bore water is undrinkable.

And in the east, under the Great Dividing Range, it’s contaminated by volcanic sulphur.

There are other artesian basins in Australia, but I don’t knew the details. The porous region is mostly capped by impermeable strata. There is plenty of underground water under river basins that are not capped.

mollwollfumble said:

roughbarked said:

Even though the basin is large not all of the water in it is fresh. The cap the bores project was carried out to prevent the salinity created by running them constantly. A lot of bore water is undrinkable.

And in the east, under the Great Dividing Range, it’s contaminated by volcanic sulphur.

There are other artesian basins in Australia, but I don’t knew the details. The porous region is mostly capped by impermeable strata. There is plenty of underground water under river basins that are not capped.

There are also places that putting down a bore yeilds no water.
The Lachlan river basin has been used extensively to water cotton and cherry orchards around Hillston.