Science, Technology and Engineering

Environmental Geoscience

Honours Projects

Groundwater - surface water interactions in the Cairn Curran catchment, central Victoria

Dale McKenzie

Supervisor: Dr John Webb

The Cairn Curran catchment in central Victoria is a major source of flow into the Loddon River which eventually runs into the Murray River at the Victoria/NSW boarder. Rising salinity in the Cairn Curran Reservoir has been cause for concern in recent years. In 2006 a study into the groundwater-surface water interactions of the adjacent Tullaroop catchment was done in order to construct a detailed understanding of catchment-scale salt mobilisation in order to better manage salinity and water availability within the Tullaroop catchment. The success of this study has prompted a similar study of the Cain Curran catchment.

Despite relatively different geologies and land uses in the two catchments (features that are commonly major controls of salt load and dispersion), the Cairn Curran and Tullaroop Reservoirs had remarkably similar patterns and levels of salinity between 1996 and 2003. Such close similarities suggest that the same driver is responsible for controlling salinity fluctuations within the two reservoirs. This project investigated the mechanisms of salt mobilisation in the Cairn Curran catchment, as well as the effect of groundwater discharge on surface water quality.

This project was supported by Primary Industries Research Victoria (PIRVic), Department of Primary Industries.