Palaeovalley and Cenozoic Hydrogeology of the West Musgrave Region

Output type: Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract Short abstract: With remote communities in arid Australia often wholly reliant on groundwater for their community water supply, it is of vital importance that reliable, local hydrogeological information is available for water managers. To build an understanding of groundwater in an isolated, arid region of Australia, the Musgrave Palaeovalley Project, part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, investigated the geological and hydrogeological characteristics of palaeovalleys and Cenozoic geology in the West Musgrave region. These findings will assist in securing remote Australia’s water resources in the face of a changing climate and increasing water demand. A conceptual groundwater model of the region was developed by employing advanced geoscientific techniques such as airborne electromagnetics and hydrogeochemical analyses. Groundwater in the region is fresh to brackish, with freshest water located in areas where preferential recharge pathways exist. Groundwater is generally young (<100 years old) and recharged by episodic, high rainfall (>70 mm/month) events. These rainfall events usually occur during wet seasons under La Niña conditions and/or when tropical low systems associated with cyclonic events and monsoonal rainfall travel inland from the north or northwest. High evapotranspiration pressures, water-rock interactions and nitrification processes are the most significant factors controlling groundwater hydrochemistry. Regional groundwater flow is slow and generally southerly towards the Eucla Basin with faulting and deformation leading to some groundwater compartmentalisation and alteration of flow regimes. This project presents the most comprehensive review of groundwater processes in the region. These findings contribute significantly to understanding both regional and local groundwater systems and provide a basis from which future investigations in the region can build upon. Citation: Lester, J.E., Symington, N.J., Thiele, Z., Halas, L., Hansen, J., Smith, M. L. & Sundaram, B., 2026. Palaeovalley and Cenozoic hydrogeology of the Musgrave region. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. https://doi.org/10.26186/149496