North East Water Resources

• Surface Water Resources

The North East region is well serviced for fresh water with a series of rivers flowing west from the Great Divide into the southern part of the Murray Darling Basin. The northern boundary of the region is the River Murray, Australia’s largest and most important river system. The Kiewa River Basin is the third smallest in Victoria and is situated in between the Upper Murray and Ovens River Basin. It is approximately 100 km long and typically only about 20 km wide, extending from the Bogong High Plains northward to the Murray River. The total divertible and minor groundwater resource from the Kiewa River Basin is estimated to be 7 100 ML per year, of which 6 600 ML is fresh water.

Murray River near Rutherglen, May 2003.

Groundwater resources in the Victorian part of the Upper Murray Basin are estimated at 3 800 ML per year. In the Upper Murray River Basin the shallow aquifer system consists predominantly of outcropping Palaeozoic-aged sedimentary rocks intruded in places by granites which are surrounded by associated metamorphic rocks.

The total divertible and minor groundwater resource from the Ovens River Basin is estimated to be 9 400 ML per year. There are two shallow aquifer systems in the Basin, including the ‘shoe string’ strands, which are randomly distributed throughout the predominantly silty and clayey Shepparton Formation of the riverine plain in the north.

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