Indigenous values and water allocation research in the Daly River region of Northern Australia, Riversymposium Conference, Brisbane 2009

Indigenous people maintain a significant presence as landowners and frequently utilise river resources in northern Australia. However, Indigenous needs and values associated with water and river systems are currently poorly understood by water managers, making allocation of water to protect Indigenous interests difficult. As a result, there are currently no clear guidelines for the allocation of water for Indigenous values, and few signs that such values are receiving explicit consideration in water planning. We provide detail of an ongoing research project aiming to record Indigenous socio-cultural knowledge associated with water, quantify the direct use value of flow-related resources by Indigenous people, and assess the potential impacts of flow regime alteration on Indigenous resource use two river catchments in northern Australia. We include a discussion of the preliminary results of the project, and comment on the potential for incorporation of this information into water allocation planning.