Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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WATER USE

IRRIGATION WATER USE


The agriculture industry is by far the largest consumer of water in Australia, accounting for about two-thirds of total water consumed in 2000–01. In contrast, manufacturing accounted for about 4% and mining for less than 2% of total water consumption, while households used about 10%. Most of the water (91%) used for agricultural production was for irrigation of crops and pastures, with the rest used for other agricultural purposes such as stock drinking water and piggery cleaning.

For Australia as a whole, the area of crops and pastures irrigated is less than 1% of total agricultural land holdings. However, irrigated agriculture represents about a quarter of the gross value of agricultural production in Australia ($9 billion in 2003–04) (1).

The number of agricultural establishments irrigating continued to decline in 2004–05, with irrigation undertaken by 35,244 (or 27%) of Australia's agricultural establishments. This was a 12.8% decrease from 40,400 irrigating establishments in 2003–04. The number of agricultural establishments irrigating fell but the total area of irrigated land remained steady at 2.4 million hectares.

The total volume of water used for irrigation fell by 357 gigalitres (GL) from 10,442 GL in 2003–04 to 10,085 GL in 2004–05. At the state level, Victoria reported the largest number of agricultural establishments irrigating (9,828), followed by New South Wales (8,606). With more than 900,000 hectares irrigated and 3,717 GL of irrigation water used, New South Wales was the largest irrigating state, representing nearly 40% of Australia's total area irrigated and just over a third of Australia's total irrigation water used.

‘Pasture for grazing’ used the most water in Australia in 2004–05. It accounted for nearly one-third of the total volume of irrigation water and for one-third of the total area irrigated nationally in 2004–05.

Some crops are almost totally dependent on irrigation, while for others irrigation water supplements natural rainfall or provides moisture at critical periods of plant growth. The most heavily irrigated crop in terms of the volume of water applied was rice, which had an average application rate of 12.1 megalitres per hectare (ML/ha) in 2004–05. This was almost three times the national average rate across all crops and pastures (4.2 ML/ha). Cotton was the next highest (6.7 ML/ha).

IRRIGATION WATER USE, 2004–05
	Agricultural establishments irrigating no.	Area irrigated ‘000 ha	Volume applied ‘000 ML	Application rate ML/ha (a)
Australia:
2002–03	43 774	2 378	10 403.8	4.4
2003–04	40 400	2 402	10 441.5	4.3
2004–05	35 244	2 405	10 084.6	4.2
2004–05:
NSW & ACT	8 606	910	3 716.6	4.1
Vic.	9 828	636	2 363.8	3.7
Qld	8 258	542	2 613.4	4.8
SA	4 739	184	877.8	4.8
WA	2 049	45	267.1	6.0
Tas.	1 654	86	231.8	2.7
NT	110	4	14.2	4.0
(a) Averaged across all irrigated pastures and crops. Note: 1 gigalitre (GL) = 1,000 megalitres (ML). Source: ABS, Water Use on Australian Farms, 2004–05 (cat. no. 4618.0).

HOUSEHOLD WATER USE PER CAPITA, 2000–01

Source: Water Account Australia 2000-01 (cat. no. 4610.0)

HOUSEHOLD WATER USE BY LOCATION, 2000-01(a)

(a) Excludes Tasmania and Northern Territory.
Source: Water Account Australia, 2000–01 (cat. no. 4610.0).

ENDNOTES