Rocks rock! The Daly River water advisory committee talks science
The Daly River water advisory committee met for their second meeting in March 2025.
The meeting spanned two days and centred on how science gathered by Water Resources Division informs water management decisions in the Katherine region.
The committee received in-depth presentations on the science, the water monitoring program, and the adaptive management tools, including water recovery and announced allocations. Understanding how the information is gathered and used to inform the plan is a high priority to committee members, who will guide the development of the next iteration of the Katherine water plan due in February 2026.
The committee were particularly interested in the ‘Geology 101’ of the Daly Basin that included an explanation of the connectivity between the Katherine River and the groundwater systems in the Top End.
The relationship between rainfall and groundwater recharge in the region is well understood, identifying the importance of location, intensity and duration of rainfall, impacting recharge and river flows that is supported with evidence from the real-world monitoring data available on department website.
Variation in water levels and availability across the region were presented and discussed throughout the meeting. The data demonstrates that on a regional scale the natural variation in climate has a far greater impact on the water resource than the current water extraction to date. It was recognised that climate change and variability are a risk to water management, not only in the Daly River basin but the Northern Territory.
The committee provided valuable perspectives on the water management tools in the existing plan for consideration in the renewed water plan. A key theme throughout was opportunity to improve communication between the department and water users, stakeholders and communities.
The committee provided suggestions of how to better increase public awareness about current understanding and information available on the water resource management. The committee also provided valuable feedback on 2023-2024 Katherine water plan state of the water resource report, which are published annually for all the water plan areas. Feedback provided by the committee will go into next year’s status report.
A summary of the meeting on Daly River Water Advisory Committee meetings.
