Abstract
The Condamine River and The Condamine River system is in the upper reaches of the Australian Murray-Darling Basin. The area is an irrigation centre using water from channel flow, overland flow and groundwater and is critically important for food and fibre production. Diminishing performance of bores and declining water quality are already evident at various places throughout the catchment and thus continued viability of the irrigation schemes make this an area of concern. The sustainable management of the river system and associated groundwater are vital for Australia's water and food security in the immediate catchment and also for downstream users. The current extended drought, the pressure of expansion coming from industrial users such as mining, combined with existing historical users from irrigation, urban, and stock and domestic supply are exerting pressure on the water resources that are not yet showing signs of recovery even when previous allocation reductions and planning have occurred that have addressed surface flows. Future population pressure along with climate variability and expected climate change will maintain or exacerbate this pressure. Water planning that incorporates these issues are challenges to address for both the community users and agencies. To assist in this challenge, more than twenty groundwater user and managers within the system were interviewed to establish their opinions and needs about groundwater planning. Such a thorough stakeholder analysis undertaken prior to the planning process can usefully inform and improve the process. The most important finding from this was identifying and clarifying stakeholder support for the development of practical tools that target the priority issues of over-allocation and climate variability and change. Tools recommended as a result of this research include groundwater conceptualisation through visualisation and animation, systems to improve water use efficiency, climate variability matrices and social-economic assessments. The research confirmed the need for these tools to be incorporated into the decision support frameworks to assist in trade-off decisions around water futures.