In response to water management and usage issues, certain areas within the state have been prescribed in order to equitably share and manage the water resources and control future water extraction processes. The prescription may be placed on surface water areas (e.g. farm dams), groundwater (areas of bores and wells) or watercourses (streams and rivers) or a combination of types.
This layer contains the linework delineating the watercourses which have been prescribed through legislation (Water Resources Act 1997). It is maintained as the master linework of the prescribed watercourses within the state. This layer will mainly be used for administration purposes for water licensing.
This dataset only provides details of prescribed watercourses (streams and rivers) while the associated datasets, Prescribed Surface Water Areas and Prescribed Wells Areas, contains the linework for the prescribed surface water areas and ground water areas within the state.
The Water Resources Act 1997 defines the principles for prescribing a watercourse and the resource management policies. Each prescribed watercourse requires a Water Allocation Plan to be prepared by the appropriate Catchment Water Management Board.