Groundwater Flow Systems (GFS) have been developed in the National Land and Water Resources Audit as a framework for dryland salinity management in Australia. Originally developed in a broad national context, GFS has since been applied at the Murray Darling Basin scale and consequently CMA scale to support and underpin the development of salinity management strategies across regional jurisdictions. GFS250 joins the mapping for the Victorian CMAs where a GFS framework has been developed, and presents a statewide map with a consistent attribute set. The GFS framework encompasses: (a) identification of generalised conceptual models of groundwater behaviour in each of the region's geological and geomorphic provinces, (b) an assessment of the physical attributes of each system, and (c) first order consideration of potential salinity management strategies applicable within each GFS. A GFS will exhibit similar physical characteristics across its extent, and generally incorporate the complete groundwater flow path from recharge to discharge. Central to the framework is the assessment of the hydrogeological responsiveness of a GFS that guides appropriate land use to assist in the management of salinity. The development GFS framework for a region is typically undertaken through intense workshopping involving local expertise, then this documented in a regional GFS map and accompanying report. The linking of regional GFSs into GFS250 was undertaken by PIRVic and funded through NAP.

Contains mineral, petroleum, coal & groundwater boreholes. Minerals boreholes (and, to a lesser extent, petroleum wells) are actively maintained in the dataset. The custodial role for groundwater and coal boreholes is in the private sector, and these parts of the dataset are not actively maintained. Mineral, petroleum and coal boreholes are updated on an irregular basis: Mineral borehole data are supplied by individual companies usually when their overlaying Exploration Licence expires; Coal borehole data have been updated from GHD Pty Ltd's (formerly GEO-ENG) data. Groundwater boreholes have not been updated since 1990 when the custodial role was given to Sinclair Knight Merz Pty Ltd (SKM) - refer to BORES100. The origin of data varies considerably. Prior to 1980 borehole data was recorded by the Geological Survey of Victoria (GSV) on 1 inch:1 mile plans and hard-copy borehole records. This included data for water boreholes drilled by public and private sector, all boreholes drilled by GSV, petroleum wells, and some private-sector mineral exploration boreholes. In areas where drilling was of particularly high density, locations were recorded on these plans as a single point or as occurring within an outlined area. The parish was traditionally used as the primary classifier for numbering boreholes. Some minor anomalies exist where a borehole and parish boundary may be on one side of a road or the other, or where parish boundaries have been moved. In 1980 the location data was moved to 1:100,000 AMG plans. In the mid-1980s a program of electronic capture commenced. Borehole locations were digitised from the 1:100,000 plans with an accuracy of +/-300m. For the areas of high borehole density where boreholes were plotted on a single point, often only the first ten and last ten were recorded in the database. Boreholes whose parish was known but exact location was unknown were also recorded, but do not have a location. Groundwater boreholes: Extensive hydrological data was originally held by GSV, but these data are now held by SKM. Coal boreholes: Location and lithological data for coal boreholes has been provided by Geo-Eng and the old State Electricity Commission of Victoria. Mineral exploration boreholes: The capture of mineral exploration borehole data from open-file exploration reports commenced in 2001 and will progressively cover the state over a number of years. The data are being captured at an whatever accuracy the source allows, typically between 20 and 250 m. Assay data have been consistently captured. Other downhole data, such as lithology, have not been consistently captured. Tenement information for the small number of private-sector mineral exploration boreholes captured prior to 2001 was lost in the migration from the original VAX database to the current Ingres corporate database. Heavy mineral sand exploration: complete coverage up for data up to April 2002; updates planned for late 2003. Other mineral exploration: coverage as follows - St Arnaud, Charlton, Wedderburn 1:100 000 mapsheets - 31 March, 2001; Dunolly, Rupanyup, Donald, Ararat, Grampians, Willaura 1:100 000 mapsheets - 30 August 2001; Warburton 1:250 000 mapsheet - 30 June 2002 (available mid-2003); Ballarat, Creswick, Skipton, Beaufort 1:100 000 mapsheets - 30 June 2002 (available mid-2003); Bendigo 1:250 000 - 31 October 2002 (available mid-2003) Groundwater data can be obtained at the following site http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/waterdata

This layer contains line features for depth contours (bathymetry) in Western Port.

This is a polygon layer defining the spatial extent, species distribution and density of seagrass and macroalgae within Port Phillip Bay mapped from aerial photography in 2000. The mapping was ground-truthed in the field.

This layer features the area cells used to record Catch and Effort data for the Western Port commercial fishery since April 1998. This layer is based on divisions of 5 minutes latitude by 5 minutes longitude.

This land use map has been prepared under the NLWRA (NHT) project of Theme 5 (Land use change, productivity and Sustainability) for Gippsland. The map refers to the year 1996-97 and is based on 4 sources of information: (1) Resource data sets of Victoria held at CGDL, DNRE, (2) Satellite imagery, (3) ABS Agricultural Statistics, and (4) Field information. The land use classification scheme that has been followed in this map was developed at a workshop convened by BRS and contributed by Commonwealth and State staff in May 1999. The scheme is a modification of a classification proposed by Baxter and Russell in 1994 for the Murray Darling Basin. The classification is hierarchical in nature, identifying primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. The five primary levels show a hierarchy in terms of human intervention in natural environment.

This layer contains polygons defining the spatial extent, species distribution and density of seagrass meadows within Wingan Inlet mapped from 1999 aerial photography and ground-truthing.

This layer features the area cells used to record Catch and Effort data for the Port Phillip Bay commercial fisheries since April 1998. This layer is used by the Port Phillip Bay, Port Phillip Bay (Mussel Bait) and Port Phillip Bay (Purse Seine) fisheries. It is based on divisions of 5 minutes latitude by 5 minutes longitude.

This layer contains polygons defining the spatial extent, species distribution and density of seagrass meadows within Anderson Inlet mapped from 1999 aerial photography and ground-truthing.

This layer contains line features which represent depth contours (bathymetry) in Corner Inlet.