Minutes from Stakeholder Advisory Group meetings held in 2020.

• Meeting 19 [PDF, 131 KB]
• Meeting 18 [PDF, 126 KB]
• Meeting 17 [PDF, 128 KB]

Minutes from Stakeholder Advisory Group meetings held in 2019.

• Meeting 16 [PDF, 127 KB]
• Meeting 15 [PDF, 130 KB]
• Meeting 14 [PDF, 539 KB]
• Meeting 13 [PDF, 486 KB]
• Meeting 12 [PDF, 154 KB]
• Meeting 11 [PDF, 490 KB]

Minutes from Stakeholder Advisory Group meetings held in 2018.

• Meeting 10 [PDF, 481 KB]
• Meeting 9 [PDF, 488 KB]
• Meeting 8 [PDF, 529 KB]
• Meeting 7 [PDF, 704 KB]

Minutes from Stakeholder Advisory Group meetings held in 2017.

• Meeting 6 [PDF, 601 KB]
• Meeting 5 [PDF, 698 KB]
• Meeting 4 [PDF, 283 KB]
• Meeting 3 [PDF, 399 KB]
• Meeting 2 [PDF, 48 KB]
• Meeting 1 [PDF, 329 KB]

• Robbie Davis, Group Chair - Limestone Coast Landscape Board
• Tracey Strugnell - Limestone Coast Landscape Board
• Paul Leadbeter
• Simon Sheriff
• Richard Halliday
• Scott Campbell
• Scott Manser
• Wayne Dodd
• Jake Tranter

Members represent Tatiara District Council, Lucerne Australia, Livestock SA, community, vignerons, Conservation Council SA and SA Water.

It is proposed that the revised Tatiara Water Allocation Plan will introduce a new water license system. This system will follow state and national policy that promotes the separation of water rights.

Instead of one water licence, the new licensing system would introduce separate water licencing instruments. This would align with the requirements of the Landscape South Australia Act 2019. The separate instruments distinguish between an ongoing right to access water, called an entitlement, and the actual volume of water allocated each year. They allow water licence holders to access and extract a volume of water and will provide greater flexibility for trading.

A water access entitlement will have a class which sets the permitted purpose of use of water.

There are four classes proposed. In relation to the current water allocation plan:

• Class T is equivalent to the tradable component.
• Class Ta is equivalent to the water holding licences.
• Class D is equivalent to the delivery supplement component for flood irrigation licences.
• Class S is equivalent to the special production requirements component.
• A water licence is not required for stock or domestic purposes.

Names of the classes may be subject to change as the process continues.

A consumptive pool is a defined amount of water that can be made available for consumptive uses within a prescribed water resource area.

There are two consumptive pools proposed. They extend across the entire Tatiara Prescribed Wells Area:

• The Tatiara Confined Consumptive Pool. Includes the groundwater in the confined (deeper) aquifers.
• The Tatiara Unconfined Consumptive Pool. Includes the groundwater in the unconfined (shallower) aquifers.

Within each of the consumptive pools, management zones have been proposed to allow rules or limits to be set up for particular areas. This allows for more targeted management of the consumptive pools. The rules or limits in the plan can be applied either across the prescribed wells area or just within a management zone.

The eight management zones proposed for the Tatiara Unconfined Consumptive Pool:

• Shaugh Unconfined Management Zone
• Zone 8A Unconfined Management Zone
• Tatiara Unconfined Management Zone
• North Pendleton-Cannawigara Unconfined Management Zone
• Wirrega South Unconfined Management Zone
• Wirrega Unconfined Management Zone
• Stirling-Willalooka Unconfined Management Zone
• Poocher Unconfined Management Zone

A transfer is a temporary or permanent trade of water rights that allows licensees to manage changes in their water needs or in response to water availability. The revised Tatiara Water Allocation Plan proposes to allow the transfer of some classes of water access entitlements and water allocations.

It is proposed to introduce a new management zone for Poocher Swamp to allow local and targeted action for sustainable groundwater management and use.

Poocher Swamp is important for three reasons:

• The fresher groundwater lens with salinity less than 1000mg/L underlying the Swamp provides water for the public water supply for Bordertown.
• It is a wetland of national importance, supports key groundwater dependent terrestrial ecosystems and plants and animals of conservation significance.
• The area has cultural significance for First Nations people.

The freshwater lens under Poocher Swamp is fed by flows from Tatiara Creek which infiltrate through the limestone karst at the bottom of the swamp. Reduced rainfall and flow in Tatiara Creek since the mid-1990s has reduced the extent of the freshwater lens and increased salinity in some monitoring wells near Poocher Swamp.

The taking of water for both public water supply and irrigation in the Poocher Swamp area needs to be carefully managed to avoid localised increases in salinity and lowering of the water table.

The proposal to introduce a management zone for Poocher Swamp to better manage localised supply, demand, risk and impact will help allow its use to remain at sustainable levels well into the future.