The town of Tenterfield, NSW was 80 days from running dry after a four‑year drought — and eight council‑drilled wells had all failed. An Aquifer Mapping survey traced the area's groundwater to buried palaeochannels, and wells targeted into them delivered 30 m³/hour, averting the crisis.
It is with much pleasure, as mayor of this wonderful shire, that I'm able to say to the world that we have found water in Tenterfield
The crisis
The town of Tenterfield, in New South Wales, Australia, had been plagued by a four‑year drought. Estimates indicated the town had only about 80 days of water left in its storage dams before it would be left with no supply at all. The town council had already drilled eight wells to try to supplement the supply — but every one of them had failed.
The investigation
An Aquifer Mapping affiliate consulting firm, based in Australia, was called in to investigate the aquifers in the area surrounding the town and locate alternative water supplies. The surrounding area was surveyed using the Aquifer Mapping system, and all the aquifers beneath the town were delineated.
The key insight: palaeochannels
The data showed that the groundwater in the area was contained within palaeochannel formations — ancient buried riverbeds that hold water but are easily missed by drilling blind. These palaeochannels became the targets for the new supply wells, explaining why the council’s earlier, untargeted wells had come up dry.
The result
Wells drilled into the mapped palaeochannels produced 30 m³/hour of water for the town — averting the crisis for the residents of Tenterfield. It’s a clear demonstration of how subsurface mapping turns drilling from guesswork into a targeted decision: instead of hoping to hit water, you drill where the science shows it is.
