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Southern Gulf - Natural Resource Management region

Regional summary

The Southern Gulf region, roughly the size of Victoria, has a population of 30,000 with the majority (24,000) residing in Mt Isa. Traditional owners make up 20 percent of the population. There is a high dependency on resource-based industries such as grazing and mining and to a lesser extent tourism and fishing.

The Southern Gulf region secured foundation funding and facilitator and coordinator support for 2003-04. Funding will support resource assessment, planning and capacity-building projects, including maintaining engagement networks and improving knowledge and understanding of natural resource management (NRM). The region's NRM plan was accredited in late 2004 and ministers approved an investment package totaling $1.97 million. Initiatives maintained throughout 2004-05 included effective weed control and a fish species inventory on Southern Gulf Rivers in which rare species have been located in new territories and entire new species of fish identified.

Priority issues

Key natural resource management issues in the region include:

• the need for more sustainable grazing land management, a situation exacerbated by the region's variable climate and by weeds and feral animals
• water supplies and management, with the region having few perennial streams but over two million hectares of wetlands
• conservation of biodiversity in the region's four bioregions, particularly the Einasleigh Uplands, an identified Biodiversity Hotspot, and migratory species that utilise the coastal wetlands
• the marine and coastal environments of the Gulf of Carpentaria, which are not well understood but which are a source of major economic activity in the region and home for dugong and turtle populations and other significant marine species
• access by Indigenous communities to, and the protection and management of, land and sea country

Regional plan

The Southern Gulf Catchments Ltd was responsible for developing the draft Southern Gulf regional plan, together with consultation with the local community. This plan was based on a whole-of-region approach and addresses significant NRM issues incorporating social, environmental and economic aspects.

Once the regional plan was accredited, the Southern Gulf Catchments Ltd was responsible for developing the regional investment strategy. This is essentially the business plan that attracts investment from the Australian and state governments and details the specific actions, costs and timeframes required to implement the regional plan.

• Southern Gulf plan - accredited January 2005

Current activities

NRM priority	Activities addressing the priority
Protecting biodiversity	fencing to protect important riparian environments, notably along the Gregory and Leichhardt Rivers surveying and identifying fish species in tropical rivers and identifying habitat threats
Weed management	control the spread of weeds at a catchment level by working with groups of property owners
Land management	working with property managers to improve land use through fencing of grazing land as well as provision of training in pasture monitoring

Contacts

Further information can be obtained by contacting the Regional Facilitators for Queensland.