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Department of Climate Change, Energy, Enviroment and Water

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Water
  3. Water policy and resources
  4. Murray–Darling Basin
  5. Northern Murray-Darling Basin

Sidebar first - Water

  • Murray–Darling Basin
    • Basin Plan
      • Economic effects of the Commonwealth water recovery programs in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area
      • Making the Basin Plan
      • Need water reform
      • Socio-economic effects of Commonwealth water recovery in the Murray–Darling Basin
      • Commonwealth water reform investments in the Murray–Darling Basin
    • Northern Murray-Darling Basin
      • Northern Basin Initiatives
      • Northern Basin Toolkit
    • Water recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin
      • How we recover water
        • Efficiency measures
        • Sustainable Diversion Limit (SDL) adjustment mechanism and its implementation
        • Water purchasing
          • Groundwater purchasing
          • Strategic water purchasing – Bridging the Gap 2023
          • Surface water purchasing - limited tender
          • Surface water purchasing - open tender
      • Progress on water recovery
        • Water recovery accounting
    • Murray–Darling Basin policy
      • Independent assessment of the social and economic conditions in the Basin
      • Review of the Water for the Environment Special Account
    • National Partnership Agreement on Implementing Water Reform in the Murray–Darling Basin: milestone assessment reports

Northern Murray-Darling Basin

While the Murray-Darling Basin is divided into 22 catchments we often think of it in 2 distinct parts – the northern Basin and southern Basin. These 2 parts are different in many ways. They have different climate conditions, topography and consumptive needs. These differences mean that the northern and southern parts require different water management arrangements to achieve sustainable and productive river systems.

Unique conditions

The northern Basin covers over 500,000km² across northern New South Wales and southern Queensland where water runs into the Darling River and then flows down into the Murray River in the southern Basin.

The northern Basin differs from the southern Basin in many ways:

Climate, topography and In-flows

The northern Basin is home to diverse ecologies with large parts of the landscape being flat, dry and typically hotter than most of the southern Basin.

Most of the rainfall is in the east or over mountain ranges with less rainfall on the drier, flatter areas where it can quickly evaporate and never make it into the river systems.

Lots of evaporative loss occurs in the northern Basin. Of all the water that falls only about 5% flows into the rivers.

This makes in-flows to the rivers highly variable and unreliable.

Consumptive needs

The northern Basin is home to many different people, places, industries and agricultural businesses who rely on water for their wellbeing and livelihood.

The varying in-flows create a boom then bust cycle in communities and in irrigated agriculture where water availability varies greatly from year to year.

Water management arrangements

These unique conditions mean that ensuring sustainable rivers in the northern Basin requires different management techniques from the southern Basin where there is more water reliably available to be shared between the environment and consumptive use.

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan and the northern Basin

During the creation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan less was known about the northern Basin and what was needed to improve its health. The Basin Plan dealt with this by creating a requirement for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to conduct a review of the Basin Plan settings in the northern Basin to make sure they were appropriate and could deliver for the environment.

Northern Basin review

The Northern Basin Review was conducted by the MDBA in 2016. The MDBA suggested amendments to the Basin Plan to account for the improved understanding of the northern Basin. The amendment reduced the volume of water that needed to be recovered from consumptive uses by 70GL and also introduced a range of other measures that could support the environmental health of the northern Basin, known as the Toolkit measures. The amendment passed in 2018.

Northern Basin measures

A number of measures are underway to support the health of the northern Basin. These measures have a focus on complementing Basin Plan implementation by addressing the specific water management challenges faced in the northern Basin to achieve environmental and community outcomes.

Northern Basin Initiatives

Northern Basin Toolkit

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Last updated: 27 May 2022

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We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.