Making Australian groundwater data accessible: the value of collaboration

Access to nationally consistent information is essential to support informed decision-making about Australia's vital groundwater resources. However, until now it has been difficult to depict a seamless national picture of groundwater resources and frame groundwater issues at a national scale. This is because groundwater data is typically managed locally without consistent format or terminology. Under the Commonwealth Water Act, the Bureau of Meteorology now collects, standardises, stores and analyses groundwater information from Australian lead water agencies to ensure the best available information is on hand to help understand this complex and largely hidden resource. One of the main objectives of the Bureau in the last few years has been to adopt a collaborative approach and work closely with State and Territory governments and other Commonwealth agencies to develop a consistent representation of Australian groundwater that is accessible and can be easily downloaded. This has resulted in the Bureau's Groundwater Information Suite.