‘We’ve had a great wet season this year, and the results on our aquifers have been pretty much immediate’: Aquifer reaches seven year high thanks to rain

AN aquifer supplying water to the Darwin rural area reached its highest level in seven years in January

AN aquifer supplying water to the Darwin rural area reached its highest level in seven years in January, in a major boost to water supply.

The heavy rain that has been falling in the Top End for most of this wet season topped up the Mount Partridge Aquifer, which supplies parts of Holtze, Howard Springs, McMinns Lagoon and Coolalinga, to just 40cm below ground level last month.

It is one of the highest January levels for the aquifer on record.

Environment and Water Security Minister Eva Lawler said the recent rain had replenished water supply in the Darwin rural area.

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“After a few years of very poor wet seasons in the Top End, we’ve had a great wet season this year, and the results on our aquifers have been pretty much immediate,” she said.

“The Mount Partridge Aquifer was about 17.5m below the surface at the start of December and now it’s about 40cm only, so some of our aquifers have filled very quickly in the rural area in Darwin which is great news for people in the rural area.

“With the Darwin River Dam, at the end of the Dry, (the dam) was about 50 per cent full. It’s (now) up to 63 per cent full.

“And we hope we’re going to get some more rain out in that Darwin River catchment area to see an increase in Darwin River Dam.”

Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security water assistant Trevelyan Edwards. Picture Katrina Bridgeford.

Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security senior hydrographer Roger Farrow said news the aquifer was almost full would come as a relief to rural area residents.

“The last couple of years were poor, as we know. We were lucky that it didn’t get too low before some good rains came at the start of each wet season,” he said.

“This wet season it’s a different story. We’ve had a big wet season, a sustained wet season, and to date, it’s building up, to about as high as it can get around this area.

“The last two wet seasons, well hopefully we don’t see that again.

“It’s quite difficult (when) people want to still be watering and doing all their domestic chores and agriculture and so on.”

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Mr Farrow said how long the Mount Partridge Aquifer could supply the rural area into coming seasons would depend on how the rest of the wet season progressed.

“It would be nice if the wet season could continue on into … April or something like that, and we could start off (next season) at a reasonably high point,” he said.

As of Friday, Darwin Airport had recorded 1366.8mm of rain so far this wet season, compared to the previous wet season’s total of 1179mm.

The site recorded 616.8mm for the month of January.