Whole of GAB reports

Last updated:7 June 2023

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Water resource assessment for the Great Artesian Basin

Smerdon BD, Ransley TR, Radke BM and Kellett JR (2012) Water resource assessment for the Great Artesian Basin. A report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Great Artesian Basin Water Resource Assessment. CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, Australia.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Figure 1.4 Areas of groundwater recharge across the Great Artesian Basin

Chapter 2: The effect of future climate and groundwater development

Figure 2.1 The impact of future climate on groundwater levels in the Great Artesian Basin. This figure shows change in groundwater levels under median future climate and continuation of current groundwater development relative to historical climate and current groundwater development

Figure 2.2 The impact of future groundwater development on groundwater levels in the Great Artesian Basin. This figure shows change in groundwater levels under median future climate and future groundwater development relative to median future climate and continuation of current groundwater development

Chapter 3: Geology and hydrogeology

Figure 3.1 Basement elevation of the Great Artesian Basin with structural elements of the Eromanga, Carpentaria, Surat and Clarence-Moreton basins

Figure 3.3 Thickness of Cenozoic sediments (Neogene and Paleogene periods only) over the Great Artesian Basin

Figure 3.6 Potential connection between the Great Artesian Basin and underlying geological basins

Figure 3.7 Extent of Cenozoic deposits (Neogene and Paleogene periods only) overlying the Jurassic-Cretaceous sequence of the Great Artesian Basin

Chapter 4: Groundwater conditions

Figure 4.1 Maps of groundwater levels for the Cadna-owie - Hooray and equivalents across the Great Artesian Basin since the start of groundwater development

Figure 4.2 Total alkalinity (left) and total dissolved solids (right) for the Cadna-owie - Hooray Aquifer and equivalents

Figure 4.3 Difference in groundwater levels between early development and modern day including selected hydrographs

Figure 4.4 Difference between the regional watertable and groundwater levels in the Cadna-owie - Hooray and equivalents across the Great Artesian Basin

Figure 4.5 Ratio of chlorine-36 to chloride in the Cadna-owie - Hooray Aquifer and equivalents. High values are indicative of recharge areas

Figure 4.6 Fluoride concentrations for groundwaters in the Cadna-owie - Hooray Aquifer and equivalents (left) and Hutton aquifer (right). High values (red) indicate areas where upward leakage could be occuring

Chapter 5: Advancing the understanding of the Great Artesian Basin

Figure 5.1 Revised hydrogeological boundary of the Great Artesian Basin

Water resource assessment for the Great Artesian Basin - Synthesis

Smerdon BD, Marston FM and Ransley TR (2012) Water resource assessment for the Great Artesian Basin. Synthesis of a report to the Australian Government from the CSIRO Great Artesian Basin Water Resource Assessment. CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, Australia.

Figure 1. Geographic extent of the Great Artesian Basin and ground surface topography, with areas of potential groundwater recharge

Figure 3. Revised hydrogeological boundary of the Great Artesian Basin. Note: the outliers in South Australia represent protrusion of older rocks through the GAB

Figure 4. Potential areas of hydraulic connection between the base of the Great Artesian Basin and underlying basement sequences

Figure 5. Overlap of the Great Artesian Basin aquifers and aquifers of shallower, younger geological deposits

Figure 7. Groundwater level maps for the Cadna-owie - Hooray Aquifer across the Great Artesian Basin for different time periods since the start of groundwater development in Great Artesian Basin aquifers

Figure 8. Difference in groundwater levels from pre development (circa 1900) to the present day (circa 2010)