Water Plan (Burdekin Basin) 2007

Each of the following is a general ecological outcome for water in the plan area—

to maintain the natural variability of flows that support the habitats of native plants and animals and migratory birds in watercourses, floodplains, wetlands, lakes and springs;

to provide for the continued capability of one part of a river system to be connected to another, including by maintaining flood flows that—

allow for the movement of native aquatic fauna between riverine, floodplain, wetland, estuarine and marine environments; and

deliver nutrients and organic matter throughout the plan area to support natural processes such as breeding, growth and migration in riverine, floodplain, wetland, estuarine and marine environments; and

deliver water and sediments throughout the plan area to support river-forming processes;

to minimise changes to natural variability in water levels and to support natural ecological processes, including maintaining refugia associated with waterholes and lakes particularly in the Belyando-Suttor subcatchment;

to promote improved understanding of the matters affecting the flow-related health of ecosystems in the plan area;

to maintain flooding in the Lower Burdekin and Haughton subcatchments to provide freshwater inputs to wetlands on the Burdekin Haughton floodplain;

to provide a flow regime that—

maintains delivery of fresh water to the estuaries of watercourses and the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon; and

maintains natural sedimentation processes to support the replenishment of beaches along the Burdekin Haughton floodplain and Cape Bowling Green; and

supports productivity in the receiving waters of the Great Barrier Reef and inshore reefs.

In this section—

refugia means the habitat required by a species during a time of stress, including, for example, drought.