Description: Natural outlets for the waters of the Great Artesian Basin (GAB), where artesian pressure forces water to the surface. View walking trail maps and brochures.
Mound springs are natural outlets for the waters of the Great Artesian Basin (GAB), where artesian pressure forces water to the surface. Most springs occur through fractures and faults on the margins of the Basin in the Far North of South Australia, north-western NSW and south-western Queensland. There are other springs further into the GAB, such as Dalhousie Springs in Far North South Australia, where water rises to the surface through geological fractures.
Most of the springs have only small flows or seepages, but one at Dalhousie has a daily output of around fourteen million litres per day.
The term mound springs reflects the characteristic mounds that have developed at many (but not all) of the springs. In some areas the mounds have been building for thousands of years. Spring flows were stronger in the geological past.