Only One Planet
Identifying
Australia’s protected rivers
Janet Stein
Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies
Australian National University
Jon Nevill
Only One Planet Australia
Only One Planet
Supporting information:
• Thirty-page paper at www.onlyoneplanet.com.au
• PhD thesis (Janet Stein ANU - in preparation)
The background paper names about 60 rivers or river reaches, as well as 30 important
protected areas.
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Why is it important?
A national conservation status assessment of Australia’s
riverine ecosystems must ask three core questions:
• What rivers (and river types) do we have?
• What rivers do we wish to protect?
• What rivers have we already protected?
Just under 1400 streams listed on Australia’s 1:250,000 map
series carry the name “river”. Many of these are ephemeral or
seasonal.
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We need a conservation status assessment
of Australia’s rivers…
Australia has made international and national
commitments to protect representative, rare and
vulnerable ecosystems, and those which provide critical
habitat for threatened species.
To do this we must know what ecosystems we have,
where they are, what their condition is, and what
threatens their values.
We must know which important rivers are missing from
our list of protected rivers.
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However:
In spite of these long-standing commitments, no
national conservation status analysis has been
conducted of Australia’s freshwater ecosystems.
National conservation planning will not be effective if
based on ad-hoc and piecemeal information.
No national overview has been published describing
the protected status of Australia’s rivers.
No freshwater ecosystem inventory exists at a
national level.
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An important New Zealand Study:
Chadderton, WL, Brown, DJ, and Stephens, RT (2004)
Identifying freshwater ecosystems of national importance
for biodiversity – discussion document. Department of
Conservation New Zealand, Wellington.
This study presently has no Australian equivalent.
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Ideally – are river values protected?
A rigorous approach to the assessment of conservation
status is not possible at a national scale:
* on a river by river basis:
– identify specific values…
– are values protected by the management regime?
The necessary information is not available at a national scale.
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A simpler approach:
A basic conservation status assessment is possible:
• is the river’s catchment protected?
• is the river’s flow regime protected?
- most of catchment within a reserve (IUCN protected area I-IV).
- upper catchment undisturbed, no major dams between source
and mouth.
- in examining these questions we use assumptions which are only partially correct,
and we use arbitrary benchmarks on sliding scales.
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Alien species:
In many cases, control of alien species is difficult or
impossible.
Many of the (otherwise natural) river systems of the
north are badly affected.
This presentation does not address the issue.
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CAPAD
protected
area
database
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Protection levels in
drainage basins
ANU Digital Elevation Model
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Rivers may not be well protected by parks:
Within areas designed to protect terrestrial biodiversity (such
as national parks) aquatic ecosystems may receive little
protection from flow regulation and beyond-boundary water
diversion.
Recreational fishing may even be promoted in Australian
National Parks and other protected areas, together with the
introduction of alien predators such as trout which can
profoundly affect pristine freshwater ecosystems .
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River
disturbance
index
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National Land and Water Resources Audit
Assessment of river condition:
The condition assessment 2002 of the National Audit used two
indices:
• An environment index – based on:
– catchment disturbance;
– hydrological disturbance;
– habitat; and
– nutrient and suspended sediment load.
• An aquatic biota index – based on macroinvertebrate
monitoring.
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Dams and
upper
catchments
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South
Alligator
River
NT
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Alligator catchments
from 200 km
Landsat 7 30m pixel
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The ‘unprotected’ corner from 11km.
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Rudall River WA
from 240 km
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Basin stream name
(95% area protected)
State Basin
area km2
Protected area name
Rudall River
WA
3391
Rudall River National Park
West Alligator River
NT
1375
Kakadu National Park
Spring River
Tas
1126
Southwest World Heritage Area
Davey River
Tas
838
Southwest World Heritage Area
Copper Mine Creek
WA
356
Fitzgerald River National Park
New River
Tas
301
Southwest World Heritage Area
Rocky River
SA
224
Kangaroo Island National Park
Weanerjungup Creek
WA
151
Esperance Coast National Park
Saltwater Creek
Qld
109
Lakefield National Park
Mawuwu Creek
NT
107
Kakadu National Park
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Stream name
(~natural flow protected)
State Water
balance
Protected area name
South Alligator River
NT
1641
Kakadu National Park
Franklin River
Tas
1442
Southwest World Heritage Area
Coen River
Qld
1247
Mungkan Kandju National Park
Davey River
Tas
1056
Southwest World Heritage Area
Ray River
Tas
713
Southwest World Heritage Area
Jane River
Tas
655
Southwest World Heritage Area
West Alligator River
NT
521
Kakadu National Park
Collingwood River
Tas
446
Southwest World Heritage Area
Old River
Tas
430
Southwest World Heritage Area
Giblin River
Tas
421
Southwest World Heritage Area
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Largest partly protected catchments:
Basin name
Basin
Protected
area km2 basin
Protected area name
South Alligator
River
11244
91%
Kadadu National Park
Prince Regent
River
3217
78%
Prince Regent River Nature
Reserve, WA
Jardine River
2833
61%
Jardine River National Park,
Qld
Shannon River
930
89%
Shannon River National Park,
WA
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The Ramsar and DIWA databases:
Ramsar (Convention on Wetlands 1971)
Directory of important wetlands in Australia
Ramsar definition of “wetlands”.
Total
listed
sites
River
catchment
included
River
segment
included
River reach
included
Ramsar
64
1 major
4 minor
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DIWA
850
7
25
143
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Relatively few rivers are well protected:
The Australian 1:250,000 scale map series shows about 3
million km of rivers and streams. Of these rivers and streams,
only about 111,000 km ( ~ 4%) are dam-free, with 100% of
their upstream catchments protected by reserves .
Most of these are a very small waterways.
Of Australia’s 166,018 km of named rivers, only 14,517 km lie
within reserves, and of these just under 3000 km ( ~ 2%) are
dam-free from headwaters to outlet.
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Australia’s largest protected rivers lie within
eight major protected areas:
* the Southwest World Heritage Area (Tasmania) which
protects several rivers including four of reasonable size,
* Kakadu National Park (Northern Territory, two rivers),
* Prince Regent River Biosphere Reserve, the Rudall River
National Park, and the Shannon River National Park (WA),
* the Jardine River National Park (Queensland),
* the Nadgee Nature Reserve Wilderness Area (NSW), two
rivers), and
* the Ravine des Casoars Wilderness Protection Area,
Kangaroo Island (South Australia, two rivers).
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Other reserves protect important creeks or
river reaches:
A further 7 protected areas provide protection for
substantial and important river reaches, while another 7
protected areas provide almost full protection for a number
of important but relatively small rivers or creeks.
Refer to supporting documentation.
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Conclusion:
A national conservation status assessment of Australia's
inland aquatic ecosystems is an urgent priority. Such a
study is likely to highlight serious deficiencies in the
protection of riverine ecosystems.
Further investigation of the values and condition of
protected rivers is urgently needed, along with studies of
aquatic and riparian biodiversity hotspots, as well as
headwater biodiversity.
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Rudall River, WA
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Nadgee River, NSW
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Merrica River, NSW
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Prince Regent River, WA
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An interesting Masters or PhD project?
“The Values of Australia’s Protected Rivers”
A detailed look at the 33 rivers named in the supporting paper:
Catchment map, reserve map, air photo…
Identify each river’s special values
Has the area got a management plan?
What monitoring is available?
Are the river’s values being protected?
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