Water bodies mapped in Figure 4.3c are specifically protected by state-level legislation, including State Environmental Planning Policy No. 14—Coastal Wetlands (NSW); wild rivers as defined in the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (NSW); Wild Rivers Act 2005 (Qld); Heritage Rivers Act 1992 (Vic); Environmental Protection (Swan Coastal Plain Lakes) Policy 1992 (WA); Environmental Protection (Peel Inlet-Harvey Estuary) Policy 1992 (WA); Environmental Protection (Gnangara Mound Crown Land) Policy 1992 (WA); Environmental Protection (South West Agricultural Zone Wetlands) Policy 1998 (WA); Environmental Protection (Western Swamp Tortoise Habitat) Policy 2003 (WA); and certain defined wetlands classified as environmentally sensitive areas under the Environmental Protection Act 1986 and Environmental Protection (Environmentally Sensitive Areas) Notice 2005 (WA, data supplied by the Department of Environment and Conservation). At the time of writing, maps for State Environmental Planning Policy No. 14—Coastal Wetlands (NSW) were in the process of being reviewed to improve their accuracy.
Australia as a nation could not exist without taking water out of the natural environment and using it for domestic and productive purposes. Australia uses about 5% of its total renewable freshwater resources, compared with about 20% for the United States and 43% for Italy (based on 2006 data).1 The regional distribution of use is highly uneven across Australia, however, with some regions extracting half the available water. Per person, we use more than all other countries of the Organisation for Economic Co–operation and Development except New Zealand, Canada and the United States.
In the water year 2008–09, we extracted 59 839 gigalitres (GL) of water from the environment—of this, 9673 GL was extracted by water service providers and 50 166 GL was directly extracted by water users.2 Of the total, 47 459 GL was returned to the environment as regulated discharge. The majority of this discharge (44 484 GL) was in–stream use for hydro–electric power generation.
Australia’s water consumption was 14 101 GL in 2008–09, a decrease of 25% from 2004–05, when it was 18 767 GL (Table 4.1 and Figure 4.4). Agricultural activities accounted for 6996 GL (about 50%) of total Australian water consumption in 2008–09. This is a decrease from 2004–05 (12 191 GL; 65%), reflecting restricted supplies during southern Australia’s extended drought. This drought went from 2000 to 2010 (sometimes known as the millennium drought), although in some areas it began as early as 1997. Somewhat remarkably, over the period 2006–09 the gross value of irrigated agriculture was maintained and even increased despite the decrease in water availability.2 The relationship between water availability for agriculture and economic sustainability at the farm, community, regional and national scales is clearly a complex one. The sources of water distributed for use across the jurisdictions appears in Table 4.2.
Table 4.1 Water consumption by industry sector; nationally for 2000–01, 2004–05 and 2008–09, and by state and territory for 2008–09
In 2008–09, Australia consumed only two-thirds of the water used in 2000–01 because supplies were restricted due to widespread drought; this decrease was almost entirely within the agricultural sector. |
Industry sector |
Water consumption (GL), Australia |
Water consumption (GL), by state and territory, 2008–09 |
2000–01 |
2004–05 |
2008–09 |
NSW |
Vic |
Qld |
SA |
WA |
Tas |
NT |
ACT |
Agriculture |
14 989 |
12 191 |
6996 |
2001 |
1435 |
2144 |
788 |
325 |
264 |
35 |
2 |
Electricity and gas |
255 |
271 |
328 |
92 |
123 |
82 |
2 |
27 |
– |
1 |
– |
Manufacturing |
549 |
589 |
677 |
150 |
158 |
148 |
88 |
61 |
50 |
22 |
– |
Forestry and fishing |
40 |
47 |
101 |
1 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
89 |
3 |
– |
– |
Household |
2278 |
2108 |
1768 |
536 |
342 |
308 |
122 |
326 |
69 |
39 |
27 |
Mining |
321 |
413 |
508 |
66 |
6 |
118 |
22 |
257 |
18 |
21 |
– |
Water supplya |
2165 |
2083 |
2396 |
1329 |
558 |
297 |
111 |
64 |
22 |
9 |
7 |
Other industriesb |
1106 |
1063 |
1327 |
387 |
367 |
249 |
79 |
176 |
30 |
27 |
11 |
Total |
21 703 |
18 767 |
14 101 |
4562 |
2991 |
3351 |
1168 |
1371 |
456 |
154 |
48 |
– = nil or rounded to zero; ACT = Australian Capital Territory; GL = gigalitre; NSW = New South Wales; NT = Northern Territory; Qld = Queensland; SA = South Australia; Tas = Tasmania; Vic = Victoria; WA = Western Australia a Includes sewerage and drainage services and water losses b Includes aquaculture and services to agriculture |
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics2