Water Resource (Whitsunday) Plan 2010

Each of the following is a general ecological outcome for 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 1 part of a river system to be connected to another, including by maintaining flood flows that—

allow for the movement of native aquatic animals 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 sediment 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;

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

to provide a flow regime that—

supports native fish passage within watercourses in the plan area; and

supports ecological productivity in the receiving waters of the Great Barrier Reef, inshore reefs and Repulse Bay; and

maintains delivery of fresh water to the estuaries of watercourses in the plan area and Repulse Bay; and

maintains natural sedimentation processes to support delivery of sediment and nutrients to estuaries in the plan area.

In this section—