Goulburn-Broken catchment
Legend
Ramsar site
DIWA site
| Security | Registered entitlements (ML) |
|---|---|
| High | 182,681 |
| Low | 10,658 |
| Total | 193,339 |
| Security | Registered entitlements (ML) |
|---|---|
| High | 495,572 |
| General/Low | 408,511 |
| Supplementary | 20,820 |
| Conveyance | 1,649 |
| Total | 926,552 |
*Water allocations in southern-connected Basin catchments can, with some restrictions, be traded to other catchments in the southern-connected Basin. This gives the Commonwealth the capacity to move water between catchments of the southern-connected Basin to get the best outcomes for the environment.
Water use planning
Environmental Water Delivery: Lower Goulburn River and Environmental Water Delivery: Lower Broken Creek collate current knowledge of the operational and administrative arrangements for the delivery of environmental water in the Lower Goulburn River and Lower Broken Creek, and provide an overview of the environmental assets and potential environmental water use options for the catchments. This work has been undertaken to support the efficient and effective use of environmental water and to engage communities on how this may best be achieved. This aims to encourage community discussion and feedback on the use of environmental water, to identify future opportunities and recognise operational risks and constraints. Comments on the documents are encouraged and can be provided to: ewater@environment.gov.au.
Environmental watering in the catchment in 2011-12
Environmental watering in the catchment in previous years
During 2010-11, the Goulburn-Broken catchment received approximately 52.5 gigalitres of Commonwealth environmental water during 2010-11. Whilst maximising benefits to the Goulburn River the water was delivered to the Lower Lakes to coincide with the seasonal raising of the lakes, providing benefits to the aquatic ecosystems of the system.
For further information about Commonwealth environmental watering in the Goulburn-Broken catchment and the outcomes achieved, please refer to the Commonwealth environmental water Outcomes Reports and Annual Reports.
Catchment profile
Where is it?
The Goulburn-Broken catchment is situated in north-central Victoria and centres on the Goulburn and Broken Rivers. The total area of the catchment is 21,831 km2.
The Goulburn River originates on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range near Alexandra and Yea. It flows in a generally westerly direction before turning northwards near Seymour and continuing to the Murray River. The Goulburn River is intensively regulated and supports extensive irrigation areas.
The Broken River passes through riverine plains before joining the Goulburn River near Shepparton. The Broken River is one of the main tributaries of the Goulburn River. Other tributaries include the Rubicon, Delatite, Howqua and Jamieson Rivers.
Gunbower Forest is the second largest Red Gum Forest in Victoria
Photo: J Baker
What makes this place so special?
Originally, the Goulburn-Broken catchment was covered with grasslands, woodland and forests. Today, only isolated remnants remain within a large, intensively cleared irrigation and grazing region. These remaining pockets of vegetation, which include river red gum forest and woodland communities, provide important breeding areas for waterbirds, including many colonial nesting species.
The Goulburn River influences the Gunbower Forest Ramsar Site and the Koondrook unit of the NSW Central Murray State Forests Ramsar Site (Gunbower-Koondrook-Perricoota Forest Living Murray Icon site ) during periods of high flow. These sites are located on the floodplain of the Murray River.
An important asset within the catchment is the Lower Goulburn Floodplain and its associated wetlands. These are listed in the Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia (DIWA) as being nationally significant.
Each of these wetlands provide a diversity of habitats for species including the great egret, fork-tailed swift and Australian Painted Snipe which are each listed under the CAMBA international migratory bird agreement.
A number of threatened species, including the superb parrot, growling grass frog (also known as the southern bell frog) and Murray cod, as well as other ecological communities in the catchment are protected under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
What does the latest science say about the ecological health of the catchment?
The Murray-Darling Basin Commission Sustainable Rivers Audit (SRA) 2008 rated the overall health of river ecosystems in the Murray-Darling Basin. The SRA reports the overall health of both the Goulburn River catchment and the Broken River catchment as being very poor
The CSIRO Sustainable Yields Report on the Goulburn-Broken Region indicated that the current level of surface water extraction is extremely high, with 50 per cent of available surface water being diverted for use or transferred for use in other water regions. Under the best estimate 2030 climate conditions, the average surface water availability would be reduced by 14 per cent and diversions would decrease by 5 per cent. There would be substantial reductions in the occurrence and volumes of flooding of the lower Goulburn River floodplain, and the occurrence of undesirably low flows would increase slightly.
Note that the boundaries of this catchment as defined by the Sustainable Rivers Audit and the Sustainable Yields report differ slightly to the boundaries used here.