A History of Hydrogeology in Australia from Pre-European to the 21st Century

Charles Russell Lawrence

School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia

Abstract: Australia is the last continent to be settled by Europeans. Previously the land was occupied by indigenous people for more than 40 0000 years that survived by using groundwater during dry conditions. The newcomers brought skills and European style development, which in the process destroyed the natural environment. The spreading pastoralists initially dug wells for stock water, and then in 1878 the first artesian bore was drilled, beginning a nationwide surge of drilling for groundwater. Australian States, who have primary responsibility for water, have periodically pooled their information and understanding together with the Federal government. This cooperation began with a series of conferences from 1912-1928, followed by the Australian Water Resources Council in place from 1962-1985. By this time the States and Commonwealth had each appointed small units of hydrogeologists, often in Geological Surveys. Whilst this phase was funded to explore and investigate new resources it also revealed that a number of groundwater systems were stressed; that there were many incidents of groundwater pollution and that groundwater behaviour played a critical role in the growing environmental problem of Stalinization. Since 1992, water management has been overseen by the Council of Australian Governments. The Council seeks to achieve efficiency and ensure that there is relatively uniform groundwater management as well as sustainability polices in all State and Territories.

Key words: history, Australia, groundwater resources, environment