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New insights and conceptual understanding of groundwater flow in the Georgina Basin, Northern Teriritory and Queensland

Created 24/10/2025

Updated 24/10/2025

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The Georgina Basin, covering 358,000 km2 of the NT and Queensland, hosts a regional unconfined aquifer associated with Cambrian carbonate units. As the most reliable source of freshwater in this arid to semi-arid environment, this large, interconnected aquifer sustains communities, industries, and ecosystems. Building on previous studies, our integrated desktop assessment developed a new whole-of-basin conceptualisation of groundwater flow systems and processes within one of northern Australia’s most important aquifers. 

We investigated key regional groundwater processes using complementary geoscience datasets. Despite considerable temporal gaps in data across the basin, the extensive spatial coverage of groundwater level and hydrochemistry data, integrated with geologic, hydrologic, topographic and remote sensing datasets, has substantially improved our understanding of regional groundwater flowpaths as well as recharge and discharge mechanisms. We identified three regional-scale groundwater flow systems which differ in their dominant recharge processes. Hierarchical cluster analysis of major ions in groundwater delineates four distinct hydrochemical clusters and helped us identify areas of enhanced recharge. Discharge of groundwater occurs both within and outside of the Georgina Basin, commonly via spring-fed streams and waterholes that support flora and fauna of ecological and cultural significance. Underpinning the interpretation of groundwater data is our new regional hydrostratigraphic framework, which enabled aquifer attribution for over 5,000 bores and expanded the utility of existing borehole data. 

Our investigation provides improved understanding of hydrogeological characteristics and groundwater flow dynamics within the Georgina Basin. This knowledge will aid sustainable management of groundwater for current and future users of this critical aquifer system.

Presented at the 52nd Congress of International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH2025)

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Field Value
Title New insights and conceptual understanding of groundwater flow in the Georgina Basin, Northern Teriritory and Queensland
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/55405d5d-7b73-42ed-b139-3cfce4e769a2
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "New insights and conceptual understanding of groundwater flow in the Georgina Basin, Northern Teriritory and Queensland". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/new-insights-and-conceptual-understanding-of-groundwater-flow-in-the-georgina-basin-northern-te