Low flows
Twenty pools were assessed in the Flaxman Valley and Barossa Valley area
for estimated volume. Pools in the Flaxman Valley ranged from
approximately 0.7 ML to 3.2 ML with a mean value of 1.2ML. Pools in the
Barossa Valley ranged from approximately 1.1 ML to 7.8 ML with a mean
value of 4.8ML. The larger pools were towards the end of the valley in
both cases as expected. Based on these volumes, flow rates of 0.2 ML per
day and 1 ML per day were established for the end of the Flaxman Valley
and Barossa Valley respectively. These values represented the
approximate complete turn over of an average pool near the end of the
valley in approximately five days. Flow rates for the remaining
management areas are described in Table 3.
These values were also compared to the flow duration curves calculated
from the observed flow data from the Penrice gauge (Flaxman Valley) and
the Yaldara gauge (Barossa Valley). In both instances the flow values
identified were close to the lower inflection point of the curves
suggesting that the values were a good reflection of flows at the low
end of the curve (Figure 1).