[en] Full text: Managing the interaction between coal mining and agricultural industries presents a challenging issue for Australian state and federal governments, particularly where productive groundwater resources are found. An example of this interaction occurs in the Bowen Basin coal fields of central Queensland. Here, productive aquifers of Tertiary aged basalt are irregularly distributed throughout the region and are commonly targeted for livestock water supplies, and to a lesser extent, for mine water supply. The basalt aquifers are also intersected by coal mines as the industry expands throughout the basin. Applying appropriate groundwater protection policy to these basalt systems is a challenge because they are very difficult to adequately conceptualise and accurately model. Similar to basalt systems worldwide, the basalt aquifers of the Bowen Basin have large spatial variability in aquifer parameters, resulting in highly compartmentalised systems. The Queensland government requires proponents of major mining projects to assess the potential environmental impacts arising from mining development, including groundwater assessments. The key objective of the groundwater assessments is to robustly and conservatively predict the zone of groundwater depressurisation around the project at milestone times during and after mining. The results of these assessments guide the project approvals process and the environmental protection conditions that governments apply to the projects. Typical field data often only provides limited “windows” into the structure of the basalt formations and commonly fail to adequately resolve their complex aquifer architecture. As a result, subsequent groundwater models are near impossible to calibrate and the predictive results are indicative only if aquifer connection exists. However despite their limitations, these groundwater models are an indispensable tool in understanding the basalt aquifer systems. This presentation summarises the experience of the authors working on mining projects in the Bowen Basin and highlights the challenges that arise during the course of these basalt aquifer investigations. (author)