The Great Forester River Catchment Water Management Plan was adopted on 14 September 2021 and took effect on 27 October 2021.
It replaces the Great Forester Catchment Water Management Plan 2003 and applies to all water resources within the Great Forester River catchment area, including groundwater resources.
The purpose of the Plan is to provide a framework for managing the water
resources of the Great Forester River Catchment in accordance with the
objectives of the Water Management Act 1999.
Great Forester River Catchment Water Management Plan (721Kb)
Great Forester River Catchment Water Management Plan - Statutory Assessments (723Kb)
This factsheet summarises the Water Management Plan including current access rules and allocation limits.
Great Forester River Catchment Water Management Plan - Fact Sheet (PDF 745Kb)
Review of the Great Forester River Catchment Water Management Plan
A review of the 2003 Great Forester Catchment Water Management Plan was conducted in 2018-2019 and amendments were made in consultation with key stakeholders (including water users in the catchment, Dorset Council, TasWater, Tasmanian Irrigation, Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, Tasmanian Agricultural and Productivity Group, NRM North, Dorset NRM and Anglers Alliance Tasmania).
The key changes made to the 2003 Plan include:
- Inclusion of a preamble recognising the importance of the river to Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
- Modernising the objectives of the Plan.
- Setting a limit for the volume of water allocations permitted in the catchment.
- Modifying the boundary between the Upper and Lower Water Management Zones to include the lower coastal sections of Hurst Creek / Coxs Rivulet and Tuckers Creek in the lower zone.
- Providing low flow thresholds for the whole year and not just the irrigation season (summer take period). The summer low flow thresholds (the Managed Minimum Flow) will remain the same while new winter thresholds have been introduced.
- Introducing an opportunistic take - access threshold to improve access to water during periods of high flow.
- Refinement of monitoring to be conducted in the catchment.
- Removal of the requirement to have a groundwater licensing system in place due to current low risk of groundwater use.
Further Information
A range of supporting documents are available to understand what the important values are in the catchment, to provide background scientific and technical information about the water resource and understand how we came to make certain decisions when reviewing and updated the Water Management Plan.
Great Forester River Catchment - water resources information