4618.0 - Water Use on Australian Farms, 2012-13 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 30/05/2014   
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AGRICULTURAL WATER USE
  • Australia's total agricultural water use for 2012-13 was 11.9 million megalitres, which was 2.9 million megalitres (32%) more than in 2011-12.
  • More than two-thirds (72%) of this use was in the Murray-Darling Basin, which amounted to 8.6 million megalitres.
  • The states using the most water were New South Wales with 5.2 million megalitres, followed by Queensland and Victoria each with 2.6 million megalitres.
  • Water applied for irrigation accounted for 93% of total agricultural water use nationally in 2012-13.




AGRICULTURAL WATER USE, year ended 30 June 2013


Agricultural businesses
Agricultural businesses irrigating
Water applied for irrigation
Water applied for other agricultural purposes
Total water use
Change in total water use
from 2011-12
no.
no.
ML
ML
ML
%

NSW
42 141
7 584
4 975 585.1
226 277.5
5 201 862.6
39
Vic.
30 921
8 379
2 449 685.3
164 338.5
2 614 023.8
44
Qld
26 648
6 685
2 359 652.9
263 575.2
2 623 228.1
24
SA
13 039
4 279
769 097.4
73 786.2
842 883.6
17
WA
11 700
2 139
239 224.9
84 781.6
324 006.5
-4
Tas.
3 937
1 364
248 786.4
23 097.2
271 883.5
25
NT
462
191
17 891.7
32 502.7
50 394.4
-13
ACT
71
8
75.8
375.0
450.8
2
Aust.
128 917
30 629
11 059 999.4
868 733.8
11 928 733.2
32
MDB (a)
49 305
12 954
8 273 450.5
300 892.9
8 574 343.4
39
Non MDB
79 612
17 676
2 786 549.0
567 840.9
3 354 389.8
18

(a) Murray-Darling Basin based on aggregations of NRM regions


Graph Image for Total Water Use by State and Territory