Angas Bremer Water Management Committee (ABWMC)

Climate | Irrigation Management | Environmental Strategies

At Langhorne Creek, the use of electric pumps to extract groundwater for irrigation began in 1950 when electricity first became available in the Angas Bremer district. By 1970 well water levels were falling and the salinity of the irrigation water was rising because the volume of groundwater being extracted had increased to about four times the volume recharged to the aquifer each year.

In 1979 the Angas Bremer Water Resources Advisory Committee (ABWRAC) was formed to provide advice to the responsible South Australian Government Minister on how best to manage the Angas Bremer water resources.

In 1980 the Angas Bremer groundwater resource was proclaimed so that further expansion in its use was stopped and management of the resource became controlled by legislation. By 1987 the first Angas Bremer Water Management Plan was adopted and water meters were installed on all bores.

The innovative policies in the Management Plan, and the huge increases in the farm gate prices of wine grapes, motivated many growers to exchange groundwater licences for river Murray licences. Many privately owned pipelines were installed to access water from Lake Alexandrina. In 1995, 42 growers joined forces to form the Langhorne Creek Water Company and to design, finance and build their state-of-the-art community pipeline scheme.

In 1997 the ABWRAC introduced Irrigation Annual Reporting as a framework for self-education by irrigators. Irrigation Annual Reporting has involved every irrigator in improving the management of the local water resource.

In 1997 the ABWRAC was disbanded after the River Murray Catchment Water Management Board was formed under the new Water Resources Act. At the insistence of the Angas Bremer community, the committee was reformed as the Angas Bremer Water Management Committee (ABWMC).

In 2000 the ABWMC introduced the Angas Bremer Irrigators Code of Practice.

In 2001 the fourth, Angas Bremer, 5-year water groundwater management plan (the Water Allocation Plan) was adopted by the Minister.

For more than 20 years the ABWMC has been committed to increasing the knowledge of all growers and to improving the long-term management of water in their district.

It has provided courageous local leadership and involved all the local growers in building practical, common sense strategies for the benefit of those growers.

The ABWMC has sought, received and valued strong technical support from South Australian government agencies. It has achieved the real involvement and the strong support of the community by acting with integrity, communicating with the community and by strenuously defending the confidentiality of every item of data provided by individual growers.

Publications

• Irrigation in the Angas Bremer. Irrigation Management Zone 2003-2004. Angas Bremer Water Management Committee Inc. Annual Report. A Summary of the data collated from Irrigators Annual Report Forms and from activities of the Committee. [Download 1.2 Mb PDF file]
• Angas Bremer Revegetation Booklet [Download 1.84 Mb PDF]
• Angas Bremer Code of Practice [Download 275 KB PDF]
  This Code of Practice has been produced by the local water management committee to assist irrigators in complying with the innovative land and water management policies in the Water Allocation Plan for the Angas Bremer Prescribed Wells Area (adopted 2 January 2001).
• Richard Stirzaker and Tony Thomson. FullStop at Angas Bremer: A report on the 2002-3 data to the Angas Bremer Water Management Committee Inc [200 Kb PDF file]
• A Model for Irrigation Managementat Langhorne Creek. Poster presented by T Thompson, K Muller and LJ Jaensch. [483 Kb PDF file]

Awards

The Angas Bremer Water Management Committee has been recognised for its environmental initiatives with the following awards:

• 2003 Alexandrina Council Environment Awards — Industrial Environmental Initiative.
• 2003 River Murray Catchment Environmental Awards - Certificate of Outstanding Environmental Achievement — Improving Farm Practices.
• 2006 SA MDB NRM Volunteer Community Action Achievement Award — for commitment to Natural Resource Management through the implementation of on-gong development of the Angas Bremer Land and Water Management Plan.