Great Artesian Basin Groundwater Data, Australia

1.7 million square kilometers of Australia's Great Artesian Basin, a multi-layered confined aquifer system. The dataset from Geoscience Australia describes the basin's geology, hydrology, and development history, including details on over 4,700 flowing artesian wells. It was last updated on April 20, 2026.

Use Cases

• Model groundwater flow based on described hydraulic gradients and transmissivity values.
• Analyze historical water level changes based on reported declines of up to 80 meters from 1880 to 1970.
• Map aquifer recharge zones based on the described eastern marginal recharge area.
• Assess water resource sustainability by comparing historical maximum discharge rates with 1970s levels.

Strengths

• Covers a vast geographic area of 1.7 million square kilometers, about one-fifth of Australia.
• Includes specific historical and physical metrics, such as 4,700 flowing wells and aquifer thicknesses up to 3000 meters.
• Provides detailed hydrogeological parameters like hydraulic gradients (1:2000) and transmissivity values (tens to hundreds m²/day).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is presented in PDF/HTML formats, which may complicate direct machine-readability.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Time Range

Historical data from ~1880 to the early 1970s, with a 2026 metadata update.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 03:46:58.668300; freshness should be verified.

Geography

The Great Artesian Basin, extending across parts of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, Australia.