Barwon-Darling Watercourse Water Resource Plan

Commonwealth accreditation

All NSW Water Resource Plans (WRPs) were submitted in 2020 to the Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to assess the plan against accreditation requirements of the Basin Plan 2012. Where plans have been submitted (and not withdrawn), a copy of the submitted Plan and the schedules and appendices is available on the MDBA website. The MDBA is progressing its assessment of NSW WRPs and notifying NSW on the outcome of this assessment. Where further work is required to address accreditation requirements, NSW WRPs are being withdrawn and will be resubmitted. At the time of withdrawal, the submitted documents are removed from the MDBA website. Refer to the Water Resource Plans–status: Water in New South Wales page for the status of each plan.

Changes made to the draft plan based on feedback from public consultation and the MDBA’s preliminary advice is provided in the summary of changes (PDF, 298.93 KB) fact sheet.

What areas does the plan cover?

This plan applies to all surface water resources in the Barwon–Darling Watercourse Resource Plan area. The Barwon–Darling Watercourse Resource Plan area will cover all surface water resources within the existing boundary of the gazetted Water Sharing Plan for the Barwon-Darling Unregulated Water Sources 2012. The Barwon and Darling rivers system funnel highly variable river flow from many inflowing river systems in the northern Basin.

Upstream of Bourke, the major tributaries of the Barwon and Darling rivers include; the Intersecting Streams, Border Rivers, Gwydir, Namoi, Castlereagh and Macquarie rivers. Below Bourke, the major tributaries are the Warrego and Paroo Rivers flowing in from the west.

Public exhibition

The draft Water Resource Plan, and proposed changes to the existing Water Sharing Plans, were on public exhibition from 26 September 2019 to 29 October 2019. All submissions have been reviewed by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

The following respondents agreed to have their submissions published on this website. Note that not all respondents elected to have their submissions published.

The public exhibition period provided valuable feedback that helped develop and inform proposed changes to the Water Sharing Plan and Water Resource Plan.

For information on other programs in the department for the Barwon Darling follow this below links:

• Environmental Water Reform ‘Active management’ to share flows
• Floodplain harvesting policy changes

Water sharing plan

The progress of changes to the water sharing plan as part of the water resource plan development can be found below.