The Australian Alps provide an average of 9,600 gigalitres of water per year into the Murray-Darling Basin, which is around 29% of the Basin’s total annual flows.

Water from the Snowy Mountains NSW region is worth between $43.6 million and $1.974 billion annually (average $498.09 million) based on water allocation prices. These calculations are extremely conservative as they do not account for the social, environmental, or cultural values of water.

Water from the Australian Alps is worth approximately $15 billion annually in 2024 prices, when all social and production benefits are considered (noting that this figure was originally calculated in 2009 using 2005 water prices and has been adjusted for inflation).

Climate change will directly reduce precipitation in the Australia Alps by up to -11% by 2050 and -20% by 2080. Increased temperatures, droughts, and bushfires will alter high country vegetation and soils, and dry out peatbogs, further decreasing the catchment yield.

There is already water conflict in the Murray-Darling Basin between agricultural production, domestic drinking water, regional communities, tourism, cultural flows for First Nations, and the environment. Reduced inflows from the Australian Alps will exacerbate this conflict, make trade-offs between water uses more difficult, and are likely to exacerbate a decline in community mental health and wellbeing.