Impacts of water management options on flows in the Condamine River in Southern Queensland

This paper examines the implications for river flows of a number of water practices and potential management options in the alluvial plains of the Upper Condamine River. It is an intensively cultivated area where irrigation is limited by the availability of water resources. The practice of capturing overland flows was investigated by the development of a model that simulates the performance of clusters of offstream storages up to sub-catchment scale. Management options examined included improvement to on-farm water use efficiency, the suppression of evaporation from open water storages, increasing the depth of those storages, decreasing their number, and improved tailwater return from irrigated land. Impacts of management options were analysed using a catchment scale water allocation model.