AWRA Carpentaria Coast Assessment 2010

This assessment and related data examines water resources in the Carpentaria Coast region in 2009–10 and over recent decades. Seasonal variability and trends in modelled water flows, stores and levels are considered at the regional level. Details for selected rivers, wetlands, groundwater, urban areas and agriculture are not addressed. At the time of writing, suitable quality controlled and assured surface water quality data from the Australian Water Resources Information System (Bureau of Meteorology 2011a) were not available. It begins with an overview of key data and information on water flows in the region in recent times followed by a description of the region.
Key data and information
The assessment presents the 2009–10 annual landscape water flows and the change in accessible surface water storage in the Carpentaria Coast region. The region experienced above average rainfall and evapotranspiration for 2009–10 and the high rainfall resulted in very much higher than average modelled landscape water yield1. The reported surface water storage in this region is Lake Julius (only 26 per cent of the total storage capacity in the region). Other main storages in the region that are not reported include Lake Mitchell and Lake Moondarra. The decrease in accessible volume, over the year given that this was a wetter than average year, was due to some deliberate releases from storage during May 2010.