A core information requirement for managing Australia's water resources is knowledge of the spatial location, relationships and characteristics of the hydrological features: the catchments, streams, aquifers, storages, wetlands and man-made structures that make up the hydrological system. In late 2008, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), in partnership with Geoscience Australia, CSIRO and the Australian National University (ANU) commenced the development of the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric).

The Geofabric is being developed to underpin the Australian Water Resources Information System (AWRIS) within a single, consistent, national geospatial framework for hydrological features.

Geoscience Australia's role in the Geofabric is providing the best available national topographic spatial data for surface water features based on the National Topographic Data and Map Specifications.

Please direct any Geofabric enquiries to ahgf@bom.gov.au.

Data Downloads

Surface Hydrology Data

Under the Foundation Spatial Data Framework, Geoscience Australia is custodian for national surface hydrology data. Geoscience Australia has aggregated data supplied from state and national jurisdictions to create the Surface Hydrology Regional Database. This data has been edge-matched across state borders, flow directed and topologically corrected to provide consistency across the country to represent the best available surface hydrology dataset.

The National Surface Hydrology Database is a selection of features from the regional database (previously referred to as 1:250,000 scale).

Surface Hydrology Lines (Regional)
Surface water linear features for the Regional Surface Hydrology Database available in ESRI file geodatabase. Includes natural and man-made features such as watercourses and canals.

Surface Hydrology Polygon (Regional)
Surface water polygon features for the Regional Surface Hydrology Database available in ESRI file geodatabase. Includes natural and man-made features such as reservoirs, lakes and farm dams.

Surface Hydrology Points (Regional)
Surface water point features for the Regional Surface Hydrology Database available in ESRI file geodatabase. Includes natural and man-made features such as waterholes, waterfalls and farm dams.

Surface Hydrology Lines (National)
National Surface Hydrology Database linear features at 1:250,000 scale available in ESRI file geodatabase. Includes natural and man-made features such as watercourses and canals.

Surface Hydrology Polygon (National)
National Surface Hydrology Database linear features at 1:250,000 scale available in ESRI file geodatabase. Includes natural and man-made features such as reservoirs, lakes and farm dams.

Surface Hydrology Points (National)
National Surface Hydrology Database linear features at 1:250,000 scale available in ESRI file geodatabase. Includes natural and man-made features such as waterholes, waterfalls and farm dams.

Geofabric Data through MapConnect Portal
Database providing a seamless surface hydrology layers for Australia at a scale of 1:250,000 representing natural and man-made features.

Geofabric V2 data from Geofabric FTP site
Surface hydrology product suite in national coverage available in zipped format. Includes the 2012 Drainage Basins and River Regions Map.

Catchment Data

National Catchment Boundaries v1.1.4
Available in zipped raster format. Includes Levels 1 (drainage divisions) and 2 (aggregated river basin groups) and NCB Pfafstetter coding. The vector product is available from the Geofabric website.

National Drainage Basins v1.1.3
Delineates the entire catchment area of any outlet to the sea or inland sink. Derived from 9 second DEM by ANU in raster and vector formats.

Other Hydrology Related Datasets

National Environmental Stream Attributes v1.1.5
A set of lookup tables supplying attributes describing the natural and anthropogenic characteristics of the stream and catchment environment.

9 Second DEM and Flow Direction Grids
Developed by the Australian National University, the 9 second Digital Elevation Model (DEM) was used to derive the Geofabric Catchments and associated products above.

9 Second DEM Derived Stream Network v1.1.3
Rasterised fully connected and directed stream network derived from the 9 second DEM produced by ANU. Vector version is available through the Geofabric website.