Tatiara Water Allocation Plan

The current plan

The current Water Allocation Plan (WAP) for the Tatiara Prescribed Wells Area was adopted on 7 June 2010 with amendments made in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Since its adoption in 2010 the Tatiara WAP has been amended four times. Please find a Summary of the Amendments to the 2010 Tatiara Water Allocation Plan here.

The review

A review of the WAP is required within 10 years of adoption. This review commenced in early 2017 and is currently underway with a draft revised Tatiara Water Allocation Plan planned to be released for public consultation in late 2021.

Find out more about the review process and community consultation.

Where is the Tatiara Prescribed Wells area?

The Tatiara Prescribed Wells Area (PWA) sits approximately 200 Km north of Mount Gambier, and covers an area of some 3500,00 hectares. The PWA includes the Hundreds of Stirling, Pendleton, Cannawigara, Shaugh, Senior, Tatiara , Wirrega, Willalooka and a small part of McCallum. It incorporates the major towns of Keith in the west and Bordertown in the east, both of which sit on the main Adelaide - Melbourne Highway

Why have a WAP?

The WAP aims to protect the resource for all water users, now and into the future and provide greater certainty for water users.

The current Tatiara WAP was developed in close consultation with the community and used the best available science and research. The plan includes:

• policy for the volumetric conversion of existing area-based (haIE) allocations and the recalculation, where eligible, of existing volumetric licences
• a method to reduce volumetric allocations where required
• water trading rules
• policy to protect groundwater dependent ecosystems
• the ability to adjust water allocations if the volume of available groundwater changes as a result of scientific review and/or policy changes during the life of the plan.