Berry Springs water resources

The Berry Springs aquifer system is 105km² in area and sits within the Darwin Rural Adelaide River Water Control District.

The 2 main surface water resources in the Berry Springs area are Berry Creek and Darwin River. The surface water resources and the aquifer system in this area are connected.

Extraction affects water supplies for ecosystems that depend on dry season flows in the Darwin River and Berry Creek.

Announced allocations

Every year on 1 May, the Controller of Water Resources announces how much water a NT licence holder can use for the upcoming year.

These announcements are part of the NT’s approach towards sustainable water resource management in the top end.

To learn more, go to the announced allocations page.

State of the water resource

The state of the water resource report is an annual summary of the water resources within the Berry Springs area.

The report provides information about:

the current status of the water resources
how water is shared and used
the activities undertaken to manage the water resources.

The report also includes an overview of:

the geology of the resources
climatic averages
predicted and measured creek and groundwater levels.

The department uses the predicted and measured comparisons as a quality control to ensure model predictions over time are in line with the plan requirements for the future health of the resource.

Read the reports:

Beneficial uses

Water in the Darwin Rural Adeliade River Water Control District is managed to support the following beneficial uses:

Aboriginal economic development
agriculture
aquaculture
cultural
environment
industry
mining activity
petroleum activity
public water supply
rural stock and domestic.

These beneficial uses are listed in the Government Gazette - G13 PDF (496.7 KB), published on 20 June 2024.

Water resources

Groundwater and surface water resources in the Berry Springs area are highly connected.

Five major springs discharge from the Berry Springs aquifer system.

These include:

Parson Spring
Parson Spring number 1
Twin Farm Spring
Berry Springs complex.

In one area, the Darwin River and aquifer intersect.

This region includes Lok Landji Billabong, Twin Farm and Parson springs. If tidal levels from the Darwin River rise or groundwater levels fall significantly, salt water could reach the aquifer.

Lake Deane, to the north of Berry Springs, is thought to rely on groundwater discharge. In this northern region, Goose Lagoon and surrounding areas are also groundwater discharge points. In the southern region, Woodfords Lagoon relies on groundwater discharge in the dry season.

The discharge flow from the aquifer:

is approximately 250L/s in the early dry season
drops to 10L/s in the late dry season.

This flow is thought to contribute to the Darwin River flow later in the dry season. A number of temporary creeks and rivers are sustained during the early dry season.

Surface water

The 2 main watercourses in the area are the:

Darwin River to the west
Berry Creek to the east.

The Blackmore River also intersects the western boundary of the Berry Springs aquifer system.

Lake Deane which is fed by groundwater discharge is a large lagoon in the northeast sector of the Berry Springs area and Woodford Lagoon is near the southeast boundary of the area.

There is also another smaller artificial surface water body (Goose Lagoon) within the Territory Wildlife Park, and the man-made Lake Barden is located adjacent to Lake Deane.

Berry Creek usually flows from November to July in response to wet season runoff and ceases to flow for the remainder of the year.

In the late dry season, the upper parts of Berry Creek and Darwin River turn into separate pools of water, and their upper catchments dry up. However, they remain more continuous as they flow northwards towards the harbour.

Licences

There are 3 licences for surface water extraction – for aquaculture, culture and industry.

Groundwater

There are 2 aquifer systems within the Berry Springs area that are hosted in different geological formations.

Due to their high level of connection, they operate as a single groundwater unit with 2 dominant layers – namely an upper layer of Cretaceous sands, sandy clays and clays which overlie the lower layer of the weathered dolostone aquifer.

The dolostone aquifer is a small oval shaped basin structure made up of weathered calcium magnesium carbonate sedimentary rock, similar to limestone.

The aquifer of the Berry Springs dolostone is typical of karstic aquifers, where chemical weathering has produced wide spread secondary porosity and permeability in the carbonates.

The carbonate aquifer is expected to have greatest permeability within this weathered zone, up to a maximum of 50 metres below the top of the formation. The karstic nature of the aquifer means that on a local scale groundwater flow is via preferential pathways.

Aboriginal water reserves

Since 2019, the Water Act 1992 has required Aboriginal water reserves to be established if there is eligible Aboriginal land with access to the water resource when a water allocation plan is declared.

Read more about Aboriginal water reserves.

Reports and publications

More information about groundwater and surface water resources in the Berry Springs area is published by the Water Resources Division. Relevant reports include: