Groundwater
What is groundwater?
Groundwater is water that is present below the soil surface. It may be present in cracks in rocks, soil, sand, clay or gravel.
How important is groundwater in Victoria?
One in ten people in Victoria use groundwater - from private bores, springs or public water supplies - for at least part of their daily water supply. Groundwater supports a significant amount of agricultural activity, provides urban supplies to a number of towns across Victoria and is an essential source of domestic and stock supply.
Groundwater is also an important environmental asset that provides base flow to streams and supports wetlands and other groundwater dependent ecosystems.
How much groundwater is used in Goulburn-Murray Water's region?
Goulburn-Murray Water is responsible for managing groundwater resources and licensing, both the use of groundwater and construction of bores, in central and northern Victoria to ensure groundwater use is sustainable.
There is 488 GL of groundwater licence entitlement in Goulburn-Murray Water's region with 177 GL of metered and estimated usage in 2008/2009. This does not include the volume of groundwater used for stock and domestic purposes.
A further 13 GL of groundwater licence entitlement was transferred (traded) between licences in 2008/2009. This equates to around 10% of groundwater allocation volume, making the G-MW region one of the most active groundwater trading areas in Australia.
More information about specific licence entitlement and trading volumes in groundwater areas refer to appendix C of the Goulburn-Murray Water annual report .
How many bores are in Victoria?
More than 120,000 bores have been drilled across Victoria. Information including bore logs, groundwater levels and chemistry are kept by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) on a central Groundwater Database (GMS) for more than 50,000 bores. Approximately 55,000 bores are recorded in GMS for the Goulburn-Murray Water region.
All of this information has been checked for reliability and pieced together with the data gained from strategic drilling programs during the 1970s and '80s to develop our understanding of our groundwater resources. The results are a series of maps, records and reports which detail many facets of groundwater and the associated geology.
Where groundwater development is significant or intensive, Groundwater Management Areas (GMAs) and Water Supply Protection Areas (WSPAs) have been declared in accordance with the Water Act 1989. To access a map of these areas, click here. (attached below)
Who is responsible for statewide groundwater management?
The Department of Sustainability and Environment is responsible for coordinating statewide groundwater management activities and providing Victoria's groundwater policy direction. For more information on Groundwater from DSE please go to the Our Water Our Future Page. For the DSE page click here.
Goulburn-Murray Water actively works with DSE and regional communities to improve how groundwater is managed in Northern Victoria.
The following map provides an overview of Goulburn-Murray Water's Groundwater Management Areas/Water Supply Protection Areas.
