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South East - Natural Resource Management region

Regional summary

The South East region, including the State Marine Waters, covers about 21,000 square kilometres of South Australia and supports a population of 63,000 people (approximately 4 percent of the state's population) across seven local government areas. Mount Gambier is the main regional centre and its only city. Principal townships are Millicent, Naracoorte, Robe, Kingston, Penola, Bordertown, Keith, Port MacDonnell and Beachport.

The marine scenery and beaches feature rocky shores, seagrass meadows, dunes, lagoons, sheltered bays and sub-tidal and offshore reefs. Flora and fauna species are highly diverse, with native vegetation covering about 13 percent of the region.

The region has very few surface water streams or rivers, so ground water (aquifers) is the primary source for industry, irrigation, and stock and domestic use. The State Marine Waters are some of the most productive along the southern Australian coastline. The South East supports a variety of wetland systems, including the Ramsar-listed Bool Lagoon and the Coorong.

With suitable soils and underground water, the region has a strong agricultural history but also supports a diverse industrial base of forestry, fishing, manufacturing and retail trade.

The region is a biodiversity transition zone, where temperate south eastern Australia grades into the arid central portion of the continent. Consequently, many species of plants and animals, adapted for various specific conditions, are found at either the eastern or western limits of their range. The World Heritage-listed Naracoorte Caves are also in the South East.

Priority issues

Key natural resource management issues in the region include:

• dryland salinity
• ecosystem degradation and fragmentation
• Blue Lake water quality
• sustainable groundwater use
• coastal and marine environment

Regional plan

Eight Integrated Natural Resource Management (NRM) Committees were established in South Australia to develop plans that identify and address the key NRM challenges in their respective regions. These committees draw on a broad cross section of representatives to ensure the highest priority issues are covered.

The South East Natural Resource Consultative Committee was responsible for developing the South East NRM Plan, in consultation with the local community. This plan was based on a whole-of-region approach and addresses significant NRMissues incorporating social, environmental and economic aspects. This Plan was accredited by Australian Government Ministers in early 2004.

The Committee also developed a regional investment strategy. This strategy is essentially the business plan to attract investment from the Australian and State Governments, and details the specific actions, costs and timeframes required to address the priorities identified within the regional plan.

The community was involved in the preparation of the regional plan through consultation with a broad range of landholders, stakeholders and local community groups.

• South East plan - accredited January 2004

Current activities

NRM priority	Activities addressing the priority
Biodiversity	increasing the extent of native vegetation conserved under Heritage Agreements, and reversing the fragmentation and ongoing loss of habitat through site protection and management strategic management and restoration of wetlands in the Lower South East improving the viability of existing native animal and plant populations through implementation of recovery plans including recovery plans for the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, threatened orchids and the Orange-Bellied Parrot development of strategic wildlife corridors, and identification of priority weeds
Coastal and marine environment	addressing the key issues and objectives identified in the South East Coastal Management Strategy and Action Plan (2000), through provision of technical support to existing and new stakeholders review of the Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Ramsar Management Plan increasing community awareness of the importance of Coorong Ramsar wetland
Salinity	constructing salinity mitigating drainage works; management regimes and restoration work to maintain and protect wetlands; protection and conservation of remnant vegetation; management of water flows of the drainage and wetland systems, with benefits also flowing to the region's significant agricultural industries identification, quantification and prioritisation of salinity risks to aquifers in both irrigated and non-irrigated agricultural land
Water quality	quantification of the risks to the water resource of Blue Lake; development of a groundwater management regime; community and industry involvement in and understanding of activities to protect the water quality of Blue Lake development of guidelines for the management of dairy effluent modification of land management and land use practices that will reduce groundwater usage

Contacts

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