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Program Information

By creating a paradise for eels using artificial channels and ponds, the Gunditjmara people of western Victoria enjoyed a reliable source of food and a valuable item to trade. Find out more about this unique industry and the people who established it.

Age level Upper Primary - Middle Secondary

Subject Humanities and Social Sciences, History, Geography

Duration 5 minutes

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ABC Education Clip: Aboriginal Ingenuity Lake Condah Aquaculture

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By creating a paradise for eels using artificial channels and ponds, the Gunditjmara people of western Victoria enjoyed a reliable source of food and a valuable item to trade. Find out more about this unique industry and the people who established it.

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Ancient Worlds News - Aboriginal people built water tunnels - 15_03_2006

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How is water significant to Indigenous people?

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How is water significant to Indigenous people?

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Indigenous owners hope ancient eel traps will be recognised as world heritage

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Indigenous owners hope ancient eel traps will be recognised as world heritage

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Indigenous owners hope ancient eel traps will be recognised as world heritage

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Gunditjmara people to find out if Australian government has accepted bid for 6,000-year-old network of fish traps in Victoria to be put forward

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How to play The Healthy Rivers board game

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How to play The Healthy Rivers board game

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Victoria floods: Echuca braces for Murray River peak | Herald Sun

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TED Ed Video - Are we running out of clean water?

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TED Ed Video - Are we running out of clean water?

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Are we running out of clean water? - Balsher Singh Sidhu

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We can’t control the weather, but we can control how much water we use. Our water usage calculator estimates your annual water consumption based on your answers to questions regarding your household water use.

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Journey beneath Melbourne and discover what keeps your water flowing.

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How is water distributed around the world?

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Geoscience Australia's Community Safety team supports Australia's ability to manage the impact of floods and helps inform decisions about risk.

We contribute to each stage of the emergency management cycle to help improve preparedness, response and recovery with our focus on contributing towards community safety.

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Flood | Community Safety | Geoscience Australia

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Geoscience Australia's Community Safety team supports Australia's ability to manage the impact of floods and helps inform decisions about risk. We contribute to each stage of the emergency management cycle to help improve preparedness, response and recovery with our focus on contributing towards community safety.

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Geoscience Australia's Community Safety team supports Australia's ability to manage the impact of floods and helps inform decisions about risk.

We contribute to each stage of the emergency management cycle to help improve preparedness, response and recovery with our focus on contributing towards community safety.

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Flood | Community Safety | Geoscience Australia

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Geoscience Australia's Community Safety team supports Australia's ability to manage the impact of floods and helps inform decisions about risk. We contribute to each stage of the emergency management cycle to help improve preparedness, response and recovery with our focus on contributing towards community safety.

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Bureau Home > Australia > Australia Rainfall and River Conditions

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How does the movement of water through the environment connect places together, and what are the implications of these linkages?

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How does the movement of water through the environment connect places together, and what are the implications of these linkages? Select Labels to see the items that can be placed around the image. Drag and drop the items to the boxes around the image. Show/hide this help screen Zoom Toggle between standard and zoom image mode.

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The world's largest underground aquifers - a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people - are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth's surface.

Twenty-one of the world's 37 largest aquifers - in locations from India and China to the United States and France - have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday. Thirteen aquifers declined at rates that put them into the most troubled category. The researchers said this indicated a long-term problem that's likely to worsen as reliance on aquifers grows.

Scientists had long suspected that humans were taxing the world's underground water supply, but the NASA data was the first detailed assessment to demonstrate that major aquifers were indeed struggling to keep pace with demands from agriculture, growing populations, and industries such as mining.

"The situation is quite critical," said Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and principal investigator of the University of California Irvine-led studies.

Underground aquifers supply 35 percent of the water used by humans worldwide. Demand is even greater in times of drought. Rain-starved California is currently tapping aquifers for 60 percent of its water use as its rivers and above-ground reservoirs dry up, a steep increase from the usual 40 percent. Some expect water from aquifers will account for virtually every drop of the state's fresh water supply by year end.
[Rich Californians balk at limits: 'We're not all equal when it comes to water']
The aquifers under the most stress are in poor, densely populated regions, such as northwest India, Pakistan and North Africa, where alternatives are limited and water shortages could quickly lead to instability.

The researchers used NASA's GRACE satellites to take precise measurements of the world's groundwater aquifers. The satellites detected subtle changes in the Earth's gravitational pull, noting where the heavier weight of water exerted a greater pull on the orbiting spacecraft. Slight changes in aquifer water levels were charted over a decade, from 2003 to 2013.

"This has really been our first chance to see how these large reservoirs change over time," said Gordon Grant, a research hydrologist at Oregon State University, who was not involved in the studies.

But the NASA satellites could not measure the total capacity of the aquifers. The size of these tucked-away water supplies remains something of a mystery. Still, the satellite data indicated that some aquifers may be much smaller than previously believed, and most estimates of aquifer reserves have "uncertainty ranges across orders of magnitude," according to the research.

Aquifers can take thousands of years to fill up and only slowly recharge with water from snowmelt and rains. Now, as drilling for water has taken off across the globe, the hidden water reservoirs are being stressed.

"The water table is dropping all over the world," Famiglietti said. "There's not an infinite supply of water."
[California's water woes primed to get worse as groundwater is drained]
The health of the world's aquifers varied widely, mostly dependent on how they were used. In Australia, for example, the Canning Basin in the country's western end had the third-highest rate of depletion in the world. But the Great Artesian Basin to the east was among the healthiest.

The difference, the studies found, is likely attributable to heavy gold and iron ore mining and oil and gas exploration near the Canning Basin. Those are water-intensive activities.

The world's most stressed aquifer - defined as suffering rapid depletion with little or no sign of recharging - was the Arabian Aquifer, a water source used by more than 60 million people. That was followed by the Indus Basin in India and Pakistan, then the Murzuk-Djado Basin in Libya and Niger.

California's Central Valley Aquifer was the most troubled in the United States. It is being drained to irrigate farm fields, where drought has led to an explosion in the number of water wells being drilled. California only last year passed its first extensive groundwater regulations. But the new law could take two decades to take full effect.

Also running a negative balance was the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains Aquifer, which stretches across the southeast coast and Florida. But three other aquifers in the middle of the country appeared to be in relatively good shape.

Some groundwater filters back down to aquifers, such as with field irrigation. But most of it is lost to evaporation or ends up being deposited in oceans, making it harder to use. A 2012 study by Japanese researchers attributed up to 40 percent of the observed sea-level rise in recent decades to groundwater that had been pumped out, used by humans and ended up in the ocean.

Famiglietti said problems with groundwater are exacerbated by global warming, which has caused the regions closest to the equator to get drier and more extreme latitudes to experience wetter and heavier rains. A self-reinforcing cycle begins. People living in mid-range latitudes not only pump more water from aquifers to contend with drier conditions, but that water - once removed from the ground - also then evaporates and gets recirculated to areas far north and south.

The studies were published Tuesday in the Water Resources Research journal.

Famiglietti said he hoped the findings would spur discussion and further research into how much groundwater is left.

"We need to get our heads together on how we manage groundwater," he said, "because we're running out of it."

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New NASA data show how the world is running out of water

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The world's largest underground aquifers - a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of people - are being depleted at alarming rates, according to new NASA satellite data that provides the most detailed picture yet of vital water reserves hidden under the Earth's surface.

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Join a game of kahoot here. Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn - any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

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Opposition to the plant – Your Water Your Say

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Opposition to the plant – Your Water Your Say

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Wonthaggi desalination plant is the largest in Australia. The $3.5bn plant, also called the Victorian desalination project, has been constructed on the Bass Coast near the town of Wonthaggi, in the state of Victoria.

Construction was started in September 2009 after the acquisition of cleared farmland behind the coastal dunes near Wonthaggi. Apart from the plant, a buffer zone was built on the acquired land.

The desalination plant commenced water production in September 2012. The water from the facility was flushed out into sea in September 2012, as it was deemed unfit for human consumption.

The plant was put into trial operations for one month as part of the Reliability Testing Finalisation (RTF). The tests established the quality of the water which was allowed to flow into the Cardinia Reservoir for consumption. The plant achieved full capacity after the completion of RTF tests in 2012.

Opposition to the plant - Your Water Your Say

"Australian Greens, the third largest political party in the country, and several community groups have opposed the plant."

Public rallies and protests were taken out against the project throughout 2007, 2008 and 2009. A petition signed by nearly 3,000 people opposing the project was submitted to the Victorian Parliament in 2009.

The government is being accused of privatising the water resources as the plant is being built under a public-private partnership (PPP). Protesters claim residents will have to pay nearly $900m a year for the desalination plant and the water produced from it.

Australian Greens, the third largest political party in the country, and several community groups have opposed the plant.

The government was legally pursued by a community group, Your Water Your Say. The group, however, lost the legal battle and was asked by the government to compensate for the legal costs.

Contractors involved with Wonthaggi's water project

The Victorian Government awarded the project contract to AquaSure consortium, which consists of Degrémont, Macquarie Capital and Thiess, in June 2009.

The consortium was responsible for financing, designing and building the plant. It is also responsible for operating and maintaining the plant for 30 years (including the construction period). In November 2009, a contract of $43m was awarded to Olex for supplying high-voltage alternating current power cabling.

"The plant achieved full capacity after it successfully passed the RTF tests in late 2012."

Thiess also awarded a contract of $7m to Ortech Industries for the manufacture and supply of 44,000m2 of its 'Durra Panel' acoustic ceiling system and 38,000m2 of roof systems. The company awarded another sub-contract of $6m to Ausform to build water retaining structures.

In October 2010, Thiess Degremont awarded a contract to Siemens Automation to supply process automation and switchgear equipment for the plant. Siemens supplied PCS7 equipment, which is used to manage the flow, vibration, temperature and pressure. Thiess Degrémont also awarded SRS Group the contract to supply SIEMENS motor control centres (MCCs) and a number of control and protection panels for four control sites at the project site.

Fytogreen was awarded a $4.3m contract by Thiess Degremont in September 2010 to install about 98,000 indigenous ground covers, shrubs and tussocks over a roof area covering more than 26,000 square metres.

Gippsland Building Approvals was contracted to undertake property surveys, Atco supplied site amenity buildings, Pro-rent constructed a truck wheel wash and additional site amenity buildings, Safeman Australia supplied personal protective equipment, Douglas Partners undertook geotechnical investigations and Dandenong's Alfasi Design and Drafting provided 3D modelling for the project.

DHL Global Forwarding, which is the logistics partner for the desalination project, delivered nearly 60,000t of material and equipment during the construction.

General Electric's (GE) Power Conversion business unit was involved in the design and supply of a whole set of medium-voltage motors and low and medium-voltage variable frequency drives for the plant. The company also supplied associated filters and transformers for use in both the reverse osmosis plant and the associated pipeline network.

Victoria's water supply issues

In the past ten years, Victoria has experienced several water crises, higher temperatures and record low rainfall. As a result there has been a significant reduction in the availability of water.

In order to improve Victoria's water supply, the government announced the Our Water, Our Future plan in June 2007. The Wonthaggi seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant is intended as a long-term solution to secure Melbourne's water supply.

Wonthaggi desalination project details

"In order to improve Victoria's water supply, the government announced the Our Water, Our Future plan in June 2007."

The Wonthaggi desalination plant project has four main components. In the first component, the plant was constructed with a capacity to generate 150-200 gigalitres a year.

The second component involves establishment of a link between the plant and offshore constructions located in the Bass Strait by building two 0.8km to two kilometre long tunnels. The first tunnel is used to supply seawater to the plant, and the second to move saline concentrate, discharged from the plant.

In the third component, water is transferred to Melbourne's water supply system by laying an underground pipeline from Wonthaggi to Berwick. The fourth and final component facilitates the plant's operations by supplying 90mW to 100mW of electricity.

Desalination plant design and construction

Thiess Degrémont was responsible for both designing and constructing the Wonthaggi desalination plant. The plant works include the construction of a reverse osmosis desalination process plant, an 84km long water transfer pipeline, marine tunnels and structures and 87km of underground power-lines to supply the plant with energy.

The soil excavated for the plant was used to construct a series of new dunes. The 170m x 170m reverse osmosis building foundation works and piling works for the pre-treatment area were also carried out. In order to construct the seawater lift pump station, a 27m deep box-cut has been made to provide access to the tunnel boring machinery.

"Victoria has experienced several water crises, higher temperatures and record low rainfall."

Pipelines have been laid for 84km near Berwick, to transfer desalinated water to Melbourne and regional water networks. The pipeline, which is capable of supplying up to 150 billion litres of drinking water each year, is made up of nearly 6,200 pipe sections, each having a diameter of 1.93m, a length of 13.5m and weighing 13t.

Work on the 1.5km long outlet tunnel that is used to discharge saline concentrate from the plant in the Bass Strait commenced in September 2010. Work on this outlet tunnel was finished in March 2011 with the help of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) named Rocking Ruby.

The 1.2km long intake tunnel was completed in December 2010. Boring was undertaken by the Wonthaggi Maggie TBM. To help protect marine environments, intake and outlet tunnels of the plant are being built 15m-20m beneath the sand dunes and seabed.

The twin tunnels were constructed using 10,700 concrete segments. Installation of drilling risers into the seabed, and the intake and outlet structures on the seabed, has been completed.

Wonthaggi plant sustainability

The completed plant operates on 100% renewable energy. One of the main features of the plant's design is a living green roof, the largest of its kind in Australia. The roof, which is made up of biodegradable materials, is used to camouflage the plant. It provides thermal control, corrosion resistance, acoustic protection and reduces the need for maintenance.

Utmost care has been taken to keep the building's footprint small; it is being developed in only 38ha of the 263ha site. The remaining area is used to develop an ecologically sustainable landscape. Provision has also been made to create paths for local cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders.

The indigenous vegetation on the plant site, which has been cleared to make way for construction, has been restored by the planting of more than three million plants and shrubs.

In order to integrate the plant with adjacent landforms, and minimise visual and noise impact, reconstruction of coastal dunes is being carried out.

Desalination treatment in the state of Victoria

The seawater is first supplied to the desalination plant through an intake system. Fine particles are removed through an initial screening of the seawater. The seawater is then made to pass through a pre-treatment system to filter the finer particles.

Reverse osmosis membranes are used to desalinate the seawater. The desalinated water is further treated to meet the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines and Victoria Government health requirements.

Related content

The new plant is located at Taranto Road, north of Binningup, approximately 150km south of Perth.

Kurnell desalination plant is located in south Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia.

The Gold Coast Desalination Plant is a reverse osmosis (RO) seawater desalination facility located in Tugun, adjacent to Gold Coast Airport, South East Queensland.

The Adelaide Desalination project involves construction of two 50gl capacity sea water reverse osmosis (SWRO) desalination plants and a 13km transfer pipeline.

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Wonthaggi desalination plant is the largest in Australia. The $3.5bn plant, also called the Victorian desalination project, has been constructed on the Bass Coast near the town of Wonthaggi, in the state of Victoria. Construction was started in September 2009 after the acquisition of cleared farmland behind the coastal dunes near Wonthaggi.

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THOUSANDS of signatures have been added to an online petition calling for wastewater now being dumped into the ocean near Gunnamatta to be made suitable for human consumption.

The "treated" water being discharged at the south-eastern outfall in 2019-2020 contained 3.5 million kilograms of nutrients, according to the National Outfall Database.

Clean Ocean Foundation president Peter Smith said $60 million would enable the Eastern Treatment Plant (ETP) near Bangholme to produce purified recycled water.

Smith says treating the water to a higher level would make it more useful and reduce the pollutants that were having a detrimental effect on sea life ( "Taxpayers' cash pours into the ocean" The Times 29/8/22).

The foundation has adopted the weedy seadragon as an emblem to emphasise the types of marine creatures threatened by the pollutants.

Smith said the waste, dubbed "forever chemicals", included microplastics, and other contaminants identified as threats to bull kelp forests and marine life including the seadragons and argonauts (nautilus octopus).

He said researchers throughout the world were alarmed about forever chemicals on the marine environment.

"The need to clean up this water once and for all is driven by increasing population pressures, increasing urbanisation, development of our coastal regions, climate change and related water security issues," Smith said.

"What happens with the Eastern Treatment Plant will be a test of Victoria's environmental credentials.

"It will determine whether the state continues to dump more than two Melbourne Cricket Grounds full of polluted water into our oceans and rivers daily while even more expensive, energy hungry desalination plants proliferate on our coast.

"Or will it opt to act responsibly, safely recycle our water and protect rivers and coastline from needless pollution for future generations?"

Smith said the outfalls had been identified as a primary driver of eutrophication and excessive algal growth by the recent federal government state of environment report and climate change

"Excessive nutrients are poisonous to bull kelp," he said.

"Bull kelp forests provide critical habitat for a variety of endangered species, If you take away the bull kelp you completely change the biodiversity.

"Any chance to restore these bull kelp forests to their former glory hinges on securing a much-needed upgraded ETP that would stop the nutrients and other pollutants from entering the marine environment.

"As well as removing the pollutants such an upgrade could also produce the same quantity and quality water suitable for any purpose"

"Emerging contaminants like PFAS, and the scourge of micro plastics from domestic washing machines have turned the re-use of Class A water into a risky business."

Within days of starting the online petition Save the Weedy Seadragon. Modernise Victoria's water policy to allow use of recycled water, it had been signed more than 11,000 times. Near the end of last week, the figure was fast approaching 20,000 signatures.

The foundation successfully campaigned to clean up wastewater discharged from the south eastern outfall is disappointed that the water is not used for more widely for agriculture despite poorer quality water from the Western Treatment Plant being used on market gardens around Werribee.

It says the eastern treatment plant is "90 per cent of the way there" (with producing water for human consumption) and taking it that one bit further is less expensive than building more "power hungry" desalination plants.

Foundation CEO John Gemmill said the "overwhelming response" to the petition "illustrates that our Clean Ocean Clean Water policy resonates with a large portion of the community".

"This also means that the current Victorian Sustainable Water Strategy's outright refusal to consider the use of purified recycled water to reduce ocean and riverine pollution and instead opting to rely on more desalination, including the proposed expansion of the existing plant at Wonthaggi and construction of one on Victoria's surf coast is out of touch with community sentiment," he said.

A three-point plan drawn up by the foundation includes upgrading the eastern treatment plant; capping pollutants being discharged from Victorian outfalls; and a "citizens jury" to decide uses for "purified recycled water".

Gemmill said Clean Ocean Foundation would continue "raising awareness of this critical issue" in the lead-up to the Saturday 26 November state election.

Sign the Clean Ocean Foundation petition at: change.org/p/save-the-weedy-seadragon-modernise-victoria-s-water-policy-to-allow-use-of-recycled-purified-water
First published in the Frankston Times - 18 October 2022

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Signing up to save environment - Bayside News

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THOUSANDS of signatures have been added to an online petition calling for wastewater now being dumped into the ocean near Gunnamatta to be made suitable for human consumption. The "treated" water being discharged at the south-eastern outfall in 2019-2020 contained 3.5 million kilograms of nutrients, according to the National Outfall Database.

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Melbourne Victorian Desalination Plant: fighting back drought with desalination

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Melbourne Victorian Desalination Plant: fighting back drought with desalination

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The Victorian Desalination Plant in Melbourne - We Build Value

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It was the Millennium Drought, which plagued so many regions in Southeast Asia and Australia, that forced Melbourne to strike back by investing in strategic infrastructure to make the city safer for its 4.5 million residents.

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The role of desalination in Australia’s changing climate

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The role of desalination in Australia’s changing climate

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Australia is projected to see up to ten per cent less rainfall across the south of the country by 2030, and 20 per cent by 2050. Alternative water sources, such as desalination, will play an increasingly vital role in providing the population with fresh water as we face the impacts of climate change.
Desalination is the process of removing the salt and impurities from seawater to make it drinkable. Desalination facilities withdraw enormous amounts of seawater through large pipes along or beneath the seafloor, which is then processed and treated to make it safe for consumption.

Desalination plants operate independent of rainfall, and with the high risk of events like heat waves, bushfires and cyclones gaining intensity in the coming decades, desalination plants can provide a critical backup supply.

Following the devastating effects of the Millennium Drought - Australia's worst drought in living memory - concern rose that the country could run out of fresh water.

Six major desalination plants were constructed across the states following the Millennium Drought, with the largest in Victoria, the state hit hardest by the dry conditions.

As Australia's droughts become longer and more frequent, the existing desalination plants may have to function at a higher capacity than they are already. In addition, new plants continue to be planned and developed in coastal cities around the country.
From seawater to drinking water
There are two main methods that are used to produce desalinated water: distillation and membrane processes.

* Distillation: This process occurs naturally through evaporation or through very simple methods such as boiling salty water and condensing the steam. Commercial desalination plants using this process have been in operation for decades

* Membrane processes (reverse osmosis): Currently, the more widely used method relies on a semi- permeable membrane with microscopic pores that separate bacteria, viruses, salt and other impurities leaving only fresh water. Most desalination plants built recently in Australia use reverse osmosis

Around 40 per cent of the water that goes through the desalination plant comes out as fresh drinking water. The remainder, known as brine, is pumped back into the ocean.

Drinking water produced by desalination plants is monitored and tested in the same way as water from a Filtration plant and must meet the standards of the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (2006).
Australia's major desalination plants
Major coastal cities in Australia have invested in desalination plants to improve water security. In Perth, long-term reductions in rainfall have had a significant impact on dam flows, and desalination plants have become a base load provider of water.

In 2020-21, water produced by the Perth and Southern Seawater Desalination Plants made up 47 per cent of the city's water supply. In other coastal cities, desalination plants provide an insurance policy that ensures the population does not run out of water. Australia's major desalination plants are:

* Perth and Southern Seawater Desalination Plants (Western Australia): The Perth Seawater Desalination Plant, located in Kwinana, was completed in late 2006. It produces 45 billion litres of fresh drinking water a year and around 17 per cent of Perth's water supply. The Southern Seawater Desalination Plant in Binningup produces 100 billion litres of drinking water per year.

* Kurnell Desalination Plant (New South Wales): The plant is located in Sydney and was completed in 2010. It is currently the largest plant in the country and has the capacity to supply about 250 million litres of drinking water per day, supplying 15 per cent of Sydney's water needs.

* Wonthaggi Desalination Plant (Victoria): The plant is located in Wonthaggi and was completed in 2012. The plant can produce 150 billion litres of water a year with the capability to expand to 200 billion litres a year.

* Gold Coast Desalination Plant (Queensland): The plant is located at Tugun and was completed in February 2009. It can produce up to 45 billion litres per year of drinking water for the Gold Coast, Logan and Brisbane.

* Adelaide Desalination Plant (South Australia): The plant was completed in 2011 and has the ability to produce up to 100 billion litres of water per year.
Planning for the future
New desalination plants are in various stages of construction across Australia, in Kangaroo Island, Belmont and Eyre Peninsula. In South Australia, Kangaroo Island's new desalination plant is expected to improve drinking water security and support the island's tourism and agricultural industries.

The plant aims to add a layer of bushfire resilience. During the Black Summer bushfires, the higher-than-usual demand for water, primarily from fire-fighting use, was only able to be met through network reconfigurations and carting water from the mainland.

Desalinated water would provide a backup supply to firefighters in the event of another severe bushfire. Planning has also been approved for a new desalination plant in Belmont, New South Wales, to provide an enduring supply of water for the Lower Hunter Region.

The new plant is expected to produce up to 30 million litres a day of drinking water, in response to droughts that have ravaged the Hunter
region in recent years.

SA Water's planned Eyre Peninsula seawater desalination plant is reviewing its location, following ongoing engagement with the Eyre Peninsula community. The utility is set to explore more cost-effective alternatives compared to the current preferred site near Sleaford Bay.

The Australian Government invested $20 million in funding to the National Centre of Excellence in Desalination Australia (NCEDA) in 2009 to conduct research supporting the development and commercialisation of innovative technologies in desalination.

Some of the projects objectives are to secure Australia's water supply by:

* Providing leadership in accelerating ground-breaking research on energy efficient desalination technology for water supply being developed in Australia

* Investigating ways of optimising and adapting desalination technology for use in Australia's unique circumstances

The Federal Government has continued to invest in the NCEDA over the years, indicating its desire to innovate desalination technology as the population grows and the need for freshwater becomes more urgent.
Addressing environmental concerns
Most forms of desalination are energy intensive and have the potential to increase greenhouse gas emissions. Many Australian plants attempt to offset these emissions by using wind power or purchasing renewable energy certificates.

An additional environmental concern around desalination are the impacts of releasing brine back into the ocean. The salts and minerals extracted from the seawater forms a hyper saline slurry leaving it with a much higher salt concentration than seawater.

The high density and salinity of this brine waste can accumulate in and around disposal areas, smothering bottom dwelling species and altering coastal ecosystems.

While diffusers are used to mix brine with seawater and disperse it at several different discharge points from desalination facilities, the large-scale uptake of desalination could overtake these protective measures.

Currently, there is an absence of detailed scientific studies on the impact desalination plants could have on marine ecosystems. By 2025, more than 2.8 billion people in 48 countries are likely to be short of water. To adapt to this new way of life, our alternative water sources will become vitally important.

As desalination technology continues to innovate, there is an opportunity to address environmental concerns and evolve the industry into a sustainable long-term solution.

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The role of desalination in Australia's changing climate - Utility Magazine

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Australia is projected to see up to ten per cent less rainfall across the south of the country by 2030, and 20 per cent by 2050. Alternative water sources, such as desalination, will play an increasingly vital role in providing the population with fresh water as we face the impacts of climate change.

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Case Study: Sanitation in Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea

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Case Study: Sanitation in Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea

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Textbook

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Overview

The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is located in the traditional Country of the Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in south-eastern Australia. The three serial components of the property contain one of the world's most extensive and oldest aquaculture systems. The Budj Bim lava flows, which connect the three components, provides the basis for this complex aquaculture system developed by the Gunditjmara, based on deliberate redirection, modification and management of waterways and wetlands.

Over a period of at least 6,600 years the Gunditjmara created, manipulated and modified these local hydrological regimes and ecological systems. They utilised the abundant local volcanic rock to construct channels, weirs and dams and manage water flows in order to systematically trap, store and harvest kooyang (short-finned eel - Anguilla australis) and support enhancement of other food resources.

The highly productive aquaculture system provided a six millennia-long economic and social base for Gunditjmara society. This deep time interrelationship of Gunditjmara cultural and environmental systems is documented through present-day Gunditjmara cultural knowledge, practices, material culture, scientific research and historical documents. It is evidenced in the aquaculture system itself and in the interrelated geological, hydrological and ecological systems.

The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is the result of a creational process narrated by the Gunditjmara as a deep time story. For the Gunditjmara, deep time refers to the idea that they have always been there. From an archaeological perspective, deep time refers to a period of at least 32,000 years that Aboriginal people have lived in the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape. The ongoing dynamic relationship of Gunditjmara and their land is nowadays carried by knowledge systems retained through oral transmission and continuity of cultural practice.

Criterion (iii): The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape bears an exceptional testimony to the cultural traditions, knowledge, practices and ingenuity of the Gunditjmara. The extensive networks and antiquity of the constructed and modified aquaculture system of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape bears testimony to the Gunditjmara as engineers and kooyang fishers. Gunditjmara knowledge and practices have endured and continue to be passed down through their Elders and are recognisable across the wetlands of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape in the form of ancient and elaborate systems of stone-walled kooyang husbandry (or aquaculture) facilities. Gunditjmara cultural traditions, including associated storytelling, dance and basket weaving, continue to be maintained by their collective multigenerational knowledge.

Criterion (v): The continuing cultural landscape of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is an outstanding representative example of human interaction with the environment and testimony to the lives of the Gunditjmara. The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was created by the Gunditjmara who purposefully harnessed the productive potential of the patchwork of wetlands on the Budj Bim lava flow. They achieved this by creating, modifying and maintaining an extensive hydrological engineering system that manipulated water flow in order to trap, store and harvest kooyang that migrate seasonally through the system. The key elements of this system are the interconnected clusters of constructed and modified water channels, weirs, dams, ponds and sinkholes in combination with the lava flow, water flow and ecology and life-cycle of kooyang. The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape exemplifies the dynamic ecological-cultural relationships evidenced in the Gunditjmara's deliberate manipulation and management of the environment.

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World Heritage listed Budj Bim Cultural Landscape

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Overview The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is located in the traditional Country of the Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in south-eastern Australia. The three serial components of the property contain one of the world's most extensive and oldest aquaculture systems. The Budj Bim lava flows, which connect the three components, provides the basis for this complex aquaculture system developed by the Gunditjmara, based on deliberate redirection, modification and management of waterways and wetlands.

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Case Study: Sanitation in Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea

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Case Study: Sanitation in Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea

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Activities