Wild Rivers
AgForce policy on Wild Rivers
AgForce has a long-standing opposition to the Wild Rivers legislation due to the following reasons:
- Failure to acknowledge ecologically sustainable development as part of the Act’s purpose. This means that social and economic outcomes are ignored for the sake of a purely conservation-based Act
- Places restrictions on long-term development options and future diversification
- Better environmental outcomes can be achieved by alternative means
- The Act creates perverse pest and weed management outcomes
- Restricts producers ability to adapt to climate change and market factors.
However, AgForce does:
- Support and acknowledge a sustainable approach to riverine management
- Supports the development of management plans for Wild Rivers areas as an alternative to additional conservation legislation
- Supports a sustainable management approach that encompasses economic and social values, not just environmental values.
What are Wild Rivers?
The previous Labor Government in Queensland implemented a policy that sought to protect rivers that were considered to have their natural values intact. These values included hydrologic processes, geomorphic processes, riparian function, water quality and wildlife corridor functions. The policy was called Wild Rivers and the Wild Rivers Act 2005 placed restrictions on certain types of new development in zones within Wild Rivers catchments.
A wild river declaration is a statutory document under the Wild Rivers Act. Catchments were declared in the following three regions:
Cape York – 2009 and 2010
- Archer Wild River Declaration
- Stewart Wild River Declaration
- Lockhart Wild River Declaration
- Wenlock Basin Wild River Declaration
Lake Eyre Basin - 2011
- Cooper Creek Basin Wild River Declaration
- Georgina and Diamantina Basins Wild River Declaration
Gulf of Carpentaria - 2007
- Morning Inlet Wild River Declaration
- Settlement Wild River Declaration
- Staaten Wild River Declaration
- Gregory Wild River Declaration
Further information on these river declarations can be found here.
The Queensland Government has indicated its intention to replace the Wild Rivers declarations on Cape York Peninsula. In June 2012 the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection released a scoping paper for the Cape York Peninsula Bioregion Management Plan. As part of a broader Statutory Regional Plan, this plan will ultimately replace wild river declarations on Cape York Peninsula. Members can view AgForce’s submission on the Cape York Bioregion Management Plan in the members only section. AgForce has secured representation on the Cape York Regional Planning Committee.
In relation to the declarations in the Lake Eyre Basin, the Department of Natural Resources and Mines is developing alternative strategies to protect Queensland’s western rivers while allowing sustainable development to proceed. It will be guided in the process by the Western Rivers Advisory Panel (WRAP) which was formed in late 2012. AgForce has representation on the Panel and will use this forum and direct contact with DERM to deliver member’s perspectives into this process. AgForce has surveyed members in those catchments to get their views on the values that they see as important and how protection of those values should be managed to enable environmentally sustainable development opportunities to be pursued. Graziers in these areas were responsible for the sustainable land management practices of the past which saw the natural values of these catchments being declared intact.
AgForce expects that a viable approach developed for replacing the Lake Eyre Basin Wild Rivers declarations will be subsequently applied to declarations in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
These links provide more information about the Wild Rivers process:
- Department of Environment and Heritage Protection
- Department of Environment and Resource Management - Wild Rivers
- Development in a Wild Rivers declared area
- Lake Eyre Basin—Petroleum and gas activities factsheet
Want to know more?
Dr Dale Miller
Senior Policy Advisor
AgForce Queensland
Phone: (07) 3236 3100
Fax: (07) 3236 3700
Email Dale
To read AgForce's recent Wild Rivers submissions please log in via the Members Login button (located at the top right of the screen).