The TI-TREE BASIN AQUIFER

MAP LOCALITY 300000mE 325000mE 350000mE 375000mE 400000mE 425000mE

Western NHULUNBUY NT DARWIN C reek Por Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts JABIRU RIVER 1802 Ken Soak NORTHERN NT Por 3636 KATHERINE TERRITORY AHAKEYE WESTERN QUEENSLAND ABORIGINAL LAND TRUST

AUSTRALIA 10 The TI-TREE BASIN AQUIFER SOUTH NORTHERN Ti Tree Ti-Tree AUSTRALIA Nturiya B NEW SOUTH 20 RN 5506 Adelaide Bore WALES TERRITORY Creek AQUIFER THICKNESS VICTORIA 50 metres TENNANT CREEK Stallion MOUNT SKINNER 30 0 1020304050607080

7550000mN 0 10 7550000mN 3 NT Por 704 HANSON TASMANIA Road 30

STUDY 0 RN 12594 2

AREA 70 RIVER Cartography by L. J. Fritz, Saltbush 60 Adelaide 20 Whitewood Dam ALICE SPRINGS microwave tower Limit of Ti-Tree Basin Aquifer Angula Family Outstation Spatial Data & Mapping Branch, Bore Mt Skinner Land and Water Division, Pmara Jutunta Woodgreen Creek 50 60 Limit of Ti-Tree Basin Station Homestead Department of Natural Resources, Environment RN 5507 and the Arts, Northern Territory of Australia. 40 40 Water Bore Principal Road - Sealed 40 E 50 RN 17268 RD Current Monitoring Bores Minor Road - Sealed / Unsealed Design File: Ti-Tree-Basin_GWater_m53 G0280010 Plot File: Ti-Tree-Basin_Groundwater_250k Prepared and produced by the DFO 20 Gauging station Track 10 Department of Natural Resources, Environment OO W RN 17269 Line of Cross-section Railway Data Source; and the Arts, Northern Territory of Australia, 30 A B 0 31 July 2008. 5 Whiterock Dam Property Boundary Gas Pipeline Cadastre - Department of Planning & Infrastructure, Northern Territory of Australia. Hydrogeology by R. Read and S. J. Tickell, 40 Town Boundary Excavated Tank or Dam 4 Water Resources Branch, Land and Water Division, 0 RN 17270 40 Anira Ti-Tree Town Fenceline Topography - GEODATA TOPO 250K Department of Natural Resources, Environment Geoscience Australia, Canberra, ACT. and the Arts, Northern Territory of Australia. 50 Nturiya Major Community

10 30 C HIGHWAY ree k 20 0 White Hills Tank 5 Elbreda Dam HIGHWAY For further information contact: RN 17271 NT Por NT Por Principal Engineer, Water Resources, Land and Water Division, C Northern Territory of Australia 6110 2427 Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts. Ph. (08) 8999 3606, Fax. (08) 8999 3666 This product and all material forming part of it is copyright belonging to the Northern Territory of Australia. RIVER Goyder Centre, Chung Wah Terrace, Palmerston, Northern Territory of Australia. You may use this material for your personal, non-commercial use or use it within your organisation for Tinarkie Soak G0280010 non-commercial purposes, provided that an appropriate acknowledgement is made and the material is not Pine Hill RN 17272 Unrapa Tank As with most arid zone groundwaters, those in the basin contain moderate amounts of salt HANSON PINE HILL 30 SALINITY altered in any way. Subject to the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act 1968, you must not make any 7525000mN 7525000mN WOODGREEN (predominantly common salt, sodium chloride). Salinity, expressed as Total Dissolved Solids on the map below varies other use of this product (including copying or reproducing it or part of it in any way) unless you have the NT Por 725 60 Woodgreen 300000m RN 17273 NT Por NT Por 2673 across the basin. The salinity is related to how easily water can get into the aquifer. Where recharge is high, salinities are written permission of the Northern Territory of Australia to do so. Creek 40 lower but where recharge is low salt becomes concentrated in the soil and sub-soil by evapotranspiration and this is 5 6152 0 NT Por E NT Por Bank eventually flushed into the groundwater. In places, higher salinities may limit the use of the water. The Northern Territory of Australia does not warrant that the product or any part of it is correct or complete 6109 2673 Dam and will not be liable for any loss damage or injury suffered by any person as a result of its inaccuracy or Athinna The nitrate content of the groundwater also limits its use for human consumption over much of the basin. It is natural in NT Por incompleteness. NT Por NT Por origin and is produced by nitrogen fixing vegetation and termites. 3694 20 3520 RIVER 6646 Mulga Bore A SANDOVER Angula GROUNDWATER SALINITY WHITE HILL YARD 40 REGIONAL SETTING 50 20 20 60 WOODFORDE 30 325000mE 350000mE 375000mE 400000mE The TI-TREE BASIN is one of many small sedimentary basins found across Central Australia. It started 1 10 0 30 to form around 65 millions years ago when lakes and swamps occupied a depression in the landscape. Initially clay NT Por NT Por 6153 STUART 4 and peat began to fill the basin but later, rivers carried sand, silt and clay, forming the upper portion of the basins fill. 6108 0 HANSON RIVER RIVER Ti-Tree H 50 10 A 1500 N S Barrow O 60 Yerik Tank 2000 N Creek NT Por 2000 1 R 2096 5 IV 1500 0 E 0 MACKAY R 20 microwave tower LA Chiripee Dam 0 N 60 100 T D RIVER A E N R A 1000 M 325000m I GEORGINA RIVER 50

R Ti-Tree IV E E 40 Yuendumu R 50 SANDOVER 1 30 0

7500000mN 0 1000 TI-TREE BASIN 0 40 HIGHWAY 7500000mN E 1500

1500 RD 10 00 ROAD FO STUART 2 D 30 000 This map was produced O

WHITCHERRY BASIN O T HAY 20 on the Geocentric Datum 10 Mulga Waterhole W AR R 1500 RIVE RIVER of Australia 1994 (GDA 94) AILERON BURT PLENTY AY STU PLENTY HIGHW NT Por 703 Lake Lewis Hart Range 60 kilometres kilometres MOUNT WEDGE BASIN WAITE BASIN Allungra Waterhole 5 05101520 60 G0280004 Papunya HIGHWAY HALE BASIN Mt Liebig Black numbered lines are 25000 metre intervals of the Map Grid of ek 10 re 50 C Redcliff Dam Kunparrka Australia (MGA) Zone 53 Universal Transverse Mercator Projection 1000 HIGHWAY HALE Horizontal Datum: GDA 94 Vertical Datum: AHD (metres) k (Haasts Bluff) e re 0 ROSS 4 30 GROUNDWATER D NAMATJIRA C 20 eering 1000 Creek ALICE SPRINGS TODD RIVER SALINITY & USE

A YI AL

AL W A LR I RT A ST R UN

A L

A L W

L AR I

T R A

S T

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A E C Allungra MACKAY FINKE RIVER DRIVE TODD RIVER RIVER 1500

A Hermannsburg Y FARM BASIN 350000mE Stock LEGEND - CROSS-SECTION 10 BUSHY PARK 2000 Geology Boundary ALCOOTA HALE BASIN Cainozoic Basin NT Por 687 Salt Tolerant Bore with Mueller NT Por 4029 Watertable Registered Number Crops Limit of Ti-Tree Basin Aquifer RN 17268 ek 1500 Standing Water Cre HIGHWAY Marginal for MACKAY Surfacewater Catchment km 0 20 40 60 80 km Level April 2005 7475000m TDS (mg/L) Horticulture Main Aquifer 1000 N 7475000mN Human Consumption and Horticulture km 0 5 10 15 km Edwards 0 Once in the aquifer, GROUNDWATER MOVES horizontally under the action of gravity. The directions that the water moves can be deduced from the watertable map below. It moves from where the watertable is A CROSS-SECTION A - B (See Main Map for Location of Cross-section) B high to where it is low. Recharge areas tend to be in the high watertable zones and discharge from the aquifer tends to occur 800 800 Bushy Park What goes in must eventually come out! usually occurs at low points in the landscape. In where the watertable is lower. Groundwater flows relatively slowly (centimetres to metres per year) due to the low hydraulic OVER DISCHARGE gradients that drive the process and the resistance of having to pass through the minute pores between sand grains. Dam Bushy Park the map area there are no springs or swamps that could discharge groundwater. Stirling Swamp located near Wilora, 60 km north of the basin is thought to be a discharge point for groundwater that leaves the basin via the narrow outlet 700 700 SAND on its northeast side. The dominant pattern of flow is from south to north. The groundwater that is not used by evapotranspiration is funnelled into RN 17273 WOODFORDE RIVER RN 17272 RN 17271 RN 17270 RN 17269 STUART HIGHWAY RN 17268 Watertable Camerons Dam Creek the narrow outlet on the basins north east side. Creek 600 Ti-Tree Basin Aquifer 600 Within the basin the main mechanism of discharge is evaporatranspiration. The acacia shrubland that covers the area Sand, silt & clay is capable of tapping the watertable where it is shallow enough. The map below indicates the depth below ground WATER LEVELS Mueller level of the water table. 375000m Dam 500 500 HIGHWAY 325000mE 350000mE 375000mE 400000mE Clay, silt, brown coal & minor sand E TY 25 Mile PLEN Gem Fields DEPTH TO WATER Rd Dam (Roadhouse) RIVER 400 400 N 500 325000mE 350000mE 375000mE 400000mE

O ELEVATION S Gillen N (metres AHD) Pinnacle A H ueller HANSON Ti-Tree 300 Bedrock (greywacke, siltstone, 300 M granite, and metamorphic rocks RIVER RIVER RN 5506 Ti-Tree 510 400000mE 425000mE

7550000mN 10 RN 5507 200 200 RN 12594 0 5 1015 2025 3035 40 45 10 520 DISTANCE - kilometres GROUNDWATER LEVELS and MONTHLY RAINFALL 20 10 600 555 520 RIVER 10

540 Y A The main Ti-Tree Basin (water bearing formation) is

AQUIFER 10 W developed in the old river sands. It is located as shallow as 10 metres to over H See Main Map for 1 530 60 metres below the ground. In places moderately high yields (5 to 15 0 IG Location of Observation Bores H L/second) can be extracted from bores. Variations in thickness of the aquifer 500

and in the amount of silt and clay mixed with the sand make for considerable HIGHWAY

E FLOODOUT 550 variability in bore yield. Aquifers occur beneath the main aquifer but they are No Record 40

RD WOODFORDE 540 7525000mN generally limited in extent and thickness.

O The cross-section above shows the location of the main aquifer in relation to 6 O T STUART 0 the two main geological layers. W 400 AR 20 RN 5506 STU 10

550 RN 12594

RN 5507

FLOODOUT FLOODOUT 300 550 515 20 Groundwater RECHARGE is the process where water seeps CK down into the aquifer. Due to the low average rainfall (318 mm/year) and its WATER LEVELS sporadic nature, the aquifer does not receive recharge every year. The abrupt RN 12594 rises in groundwater levels seen on the graph to the right, record recharge No Record Ti-Tree Basin events, typically associated with heavy rainfalls. An exceptionally large event RN’s 5506 & 5507 560 DEPTH TO WATER Aquifer 7500000mN occurred in the mid to late 1970’s. Groundwater levels have still not fallen to ALLUNGRA 200 Water Level Contour pre-1970’s levels over much of the basin. The long term average recharge is MONTHLY RAINFALL (mm) estimated at 2 mm/year, a relatively small amount. - metres AHD 40 550 (April 2005) Recharge is not evenly distributed across the area but is thought to be 60 WATER LEVEL (metres above sea level) Groundwater Flow concentrated in flood-outs. These are features where rivers enter the basin from No Record adjoining hills and then fan out across the plains into numerous channels. During 100 Observation Bore the rare times that the rivers flood, most of the water soaks into the sandy soils 40 Observation Bore of the flood-outs and the flood-waters only reach a limited distance from the hills. The Allungra Creek and Woodforde River flood-outs are the most important RN 5506 with Registered No. 570 20 recharge areas in the basin. 60 Property Boundary 0 545 510 Road 10 2001 1991 1981 1971 Depth - metres (April 2005) 2003 2005 1993 1995 1983 1985 1973 1975 1999 2002 1989 1992 1979 1982 1969 1972 1998 1988 1978 1968 1997 1987 1977 1967 2004 2000 1994 1996 1990 1984 1986 1980 1974 1976 Satellite image sourced from km 0 5 10 15 km 1970 km 0 5 10 15 km 7475000mN Terrametrics R , TruEarth R imagery 0 WATER YEAR