In Queensland, a number of subartesian areas have been declared under the Water Act 2000. Some have been declared within water resource plans, while most have been declared under the Water Regulation 2002, both of which are subordinate legislation to the Act.

Water licensing and development permit requirements

For subartesian areas defined in the Water Regulation 2002:

• a water licence is required to take or interfere with subartesian water, other than for the purposes specified within Schedule 11 of the Water Regulation 2002.
• under the Integrated Planning Act 1997, a development permit is required to construct or install works that take subartesian water, other than works constructed or installed solely for the purposes mentioned within schedule 11 of the Water Regulation 2002.

For subartesian areas that are defined in water resource plans, the respective water resource plan defines the area-specific water licensing and development permit requirements. See the following table for a summary of the area-specific water licensing and development permit requirements.

You can download water legislation and water resource plans from the website of the Office of Queensland Parliamentary Counsel.

Viewing the subartesian areas

By clicking on the relevant subartesian area in the map below, you can view PDF maps* of the declared areas. These have been optimised for downloading and printing on A4 paper, but the file sizes of some are still quite large. Please note that some maps are currently under review and therefore not available.

If you need boundaries clarified, or would like an A3 copy, please contact your local NRW service centre. Please specify the plan number of the declared subartesian area, and your Lot on Plan Number.

Declared subartesian area maps

Declared subartesian areas within Queensland

 

Mt Isa, Eastern Downs and Great Artesian Basin subartesian areas

 

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Area-specific water licencing and development permit requirements

Name of declared subartesian area	Subordinate legislation defining the subartesian area	Water licence not required for	Works not assessable for
Bluewater	Water Regulation 2002
Bowen	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Callide	Water Regulation 2002	Domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Cattle Creek	Water Regulation 2002	Domestic purposes	Domestic purposes
Clarendon	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Cook	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Duck Farm	Water Regulation 2002
Eastern Downs	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Farnborough	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Fitzroy	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Fraser Island	Water Regulation 2002	Domestic purposes	Domestic purposes
Great Artesian Basin	Water Regulation 2002	Stock purposes from subartesian aquifers not connected to artesian aquifers. Domestic purposes.
Highlands	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Monto	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Moreton Island	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Mossman	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Mulgildie	Water Regulation 2002	All purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
North Stradbroke Island	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Pioneer	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Proserpine	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes
Upper Georgina	Water Regulation 2002	Stock or domestic purposes	Stock or domestic purposes

*Requires Acrobat Reader