Queensland Consolidated Regulations

WATER PLAN (BURNETT BASIN) 2014 - REG 16

16 Ecological outcomes

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

(a) minimisation of changes to the natural variability of flows that support aquatic ecosystems;

(b) the continued capability of a part of the river system to be connected to another, including by maintaining flows that—

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

(ii) support water-related ecosystems; and

(iii) support river-forming processes;

(c) protection and maintenance of refugia associated with waterholes, lakes and wetlands;

(d) the support of ecosystems dependent on groundwater, including, for example, riparian vegetation and wetlands;

(e) provision of flows and hydraulic habitat for flow-spawning fish and endemic species, including, for example, the Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri) and the white-throated snapping turtle (Elseya albagula);

(f) maintenance of flows necessary for estuarine ecosystem functions, including flows for—

(i) barramundi (Lates calcarifer) and sea mullet (Mugil cephalus) recruitment; and

(ii) banana prawn (Fenneropenaeus merguiensis) growth; and

(iii) river mangroves (Aegiceras corniculatum);

(g) maintenance of a near natural flow regime that supports waterholes and riverine ecosystems in subcatchment area M.