Summary

The Ord River Irrigation Area (ORIA) is one of the four nodes in the Water Security for Northern Australia program.

The ORIA supports a broad array of agriculture including melons, mangos and broad acre cropping. The ORIA is presently in Stage 2 of development, with farms to the east of Kununurra, towards the NT border, with Stage 3 farms proposed for the NT.

Much of the project focuses on the Keep River catchment, which is habitat to EPBC listed species, including sawfish. Two of the projects seek to ensure that surface water quality is maintained to protect these important species and a third seeks to understand stakeholder views on how water is valued in the system, and how water could be managed during dry years.

For more detailed information on project research topics, objectives and activity please read the attached factsheets for the WSNA Ord River Irrigation Area.

Node contact: Dr Dylan Irvine, Outstanding Future Researcher – Northern Water Futures, Charles Darwin University, email: dylan.irvine@cdu.edu.au

Background:

This Water Security for Northern Australia (WSNA) program is being delivered through a partnership between the CRCNA and the Northern Australia Universities Alliance.

The WSNA program will develop and implement a series of research projects which address problematic issues which are constraining sustainable water resource utilisation in four key precincts or focal nodes across Northern Australia. These focal nodes are (Gilbert catchment (QLD), Daly River (NT), Ord River Irrigation Area (WA) and Lower Fitzroy catchment (QLD)).

These focal nodes were selected by the CRCNA based on prior assessments and consultation indicating they are likely locations of further water resource development pressure.  In order to develop such a series of research projects, it was first required that the relevant stakeholders in each focal node be engaged in a co-design process.

The four focal nodes were developed through a 5-month engagement phase and now report to regional stakeholder advisory groups: Co-design phase of the Water Security for Northern Australia.

Expected outcomes

• Review catchment management strategies in other tropical agricultural catchments to inform water quality management approaches.
• Investigate approaches to measure variables that can inform whether runoff events impact upon important species in the river.
• Gain insights into the importance of water to stakeholders in the region, and inform potential approaches to water management in dry years.
• Collation of water quality management and monitoring plans from other catchments in tropical Australia.
• Review of various management approaches used in tropical catchments to assist future planning to maintain water quality standards and balance sustainable development needs.