About this project

Focussing initially on Western Australia, the objective of this project was to address the key knowledge challenges facing brackish groundwater desalination projects in Australia. Namely:

  • uncertainties in brackish groundwater resources, including the scale of available resources, groundwater chemical composition and possible impacts of development
  • inland brine management, and
  • energy availability in remote locations.

The need for this study was identified in previous work comissioned by the NWGA:

The project team included researchers from:

  • CSIRO Environment – focusing on groundwater systems characterisation, groundwater quality assessment to inform desalination options and brine management, and strategies for delivery of the knowledge gained.  
  • CSIRO Energy – addressing energy availability in remote locations
  • CSIRO Mineral Resources – addressing hydrogeochemical characterisations of brackish groundwater, which will allow investigating potential mineral recovery from brine
  • OSMOFLO Water Management Pty Ltd – providing information on brine reductions and brine disposal options

The project was completed in June 2025.

Project Outputs

The following outputs from the project have been published:

Factsheets

Technical Reports

Summary Reports

Data

  • Energy availability from solar radiation and wind power density
  • Levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for different reliability classes
  • Groundwater bore data
  • Salinity status of aquifers in different groundwater GMAs
  • Available allocation from aquifers in different groundwater GMAs