The first audit of a New South Wales Water Resource Plan has put groundwater management in the spotlight, with findings that not all commitments have been met in the Macquarie-Castlereagh Alluvium.
The independent audit, completed and published by the Inspector-General of Water Compliance, the Hon. Troy Grant, examines whether commitments made by the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and WaterNSW have been implemented as required under the Basin Plan.
It is the first time an audit of this kind has been completed on one of NSW’s long-awaited Water Resource Plans.
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Why this audit matters
Accredited Water Resource Plans are a cornerstone of the Murray–Darling Basin Plan, setting out how water is to be managed sustainably while meeting environmental and community needs.
NSW’s delay in accrediting WRPs has long been a national concern. Grant said the absence of accredited plans for many years was a significant issue for Basin Plan implementation and one he raised publicly in 2022.
While progress has been made, with eight of the state’s eleven groundwater WRPs now accredited and operational, the audit highlights that accreditation alone does not guarantee full delivery of commitments on the ground.
What the audit found
The Macquarie-Castlereagh Alluvium includes six sustainable diversion limit resource units and more than twenty groundwater-dependent woodland forests and wetlands, including black box, lignum, river red gum and yellow box ecosystems.
The audit found that NSW has not met all commitments set out in the WRP for this groundwater system. While WaterNSW was found to be fully compliant, gaps remain in the implementation of some commitments by NSW government agencies.
Failed commitments have implications for compliance with environmental watering requirements under the Basin Plan, particularly for groundwater-dependent ecosystems.
Groundwater under growing pressure
Grant said the audit reinforces the importance of groundwater management, particularly as climate conditions become more variable and surface water availability declines.
“In very dry conditions, groundwater becomes more critical, because it is the last reliable source of water that allows ecosystems to survive, function, and recover from increasing climatic stress,” he said.
He also pointed to the reliance of regional communities on groundwater, including Dubbo and the surrounding towns of Coonamble, Narromine, Warren, Nyngan, Gilgandra and Coonabarabran.
Accountability and next steps
The Inspector-General has given NSW DCCEEW 90 days to outline what actions it proposes to take if the audit’s recommendations are accepted.
Grant said the audit is intended to provide greater transparency for the public and to assess whether Basin Plan obligations are being fully implemented, not just documented.
“I’m looking for evidence to show me that NSW agencies have fully implemented their obligations in the Basin Plan,” he said. “I’m not quite there yet; I still need convincing.”
The IGWC will monitor the progress of any agreed actions and confirm once they have been fully implemented, with further audits expected to follow.