A blueprint for protecting Queensland’s slice of the wild rivers and floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin while limiting oil and gas development has been opened for public consultation.
The Regulatory Impact Statement for the Queensland Lake Eyre Basin released on Friday was welcomed by environmental campaigners.
The draft plan aims to balance adequate long-term protection of rivers, watercourses and floodplains with sustainable economic development.
The statement recognises Indigenous peoples’ connection to the region during a 12-week consultation period open to community feedback until August 25.
The draft plan floats options to include existing regulatory frameworks managing resource extraction while ending future oil and gas development on the rivers, flood plains and main watercourses.
“The Palaszczuk government is committed to protecting the long-term health, ecology and cultural values of the rivers and floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin within Queensland,” Environment Minister Leanne Linard said.
The basin system straddles Queensland, NSW, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Water flowing through Queensland’s Georgina and Diamantina rivers and Cooper Creek feed directly into the basin.
“The basin comes to life following rain, with waterbirds like pelicans and stilts arriving in their thousands to breed,” Ms Linard said.
“The Lake Eyre Basin’s wetland also supports species of threatened migratory shorebirds … maintaining the clean and uninterrupted flow of the waterways in the basin is critical to the survival of these birds.”
Feedback is now being sought from industry, stakeholders and environmental groups.
“This is the next step in the Queensland government getting on with the job of delivering their long-held election commitments to protect the globally significant Channel Country rivers and floodplains of the Lake Eyre Basin,” Hannah Schuch of the Wilderness Society said.
“Queenslanders would hate to see this incredible landscape deteriorate at the hands of oil and gas giants.”
The ecological and cultural significance, both nationally and globally, must be protected, said Lake Eyre Basin Stakeholder Advisory Group chair Stephen Robertson.
“It is the largest internal drainage system in Australia and one of the biggest in the world,” Mr Robertson said.
“This unique basin also has one of the world’s most variable flow regimes and contains one of the last remaining unpolluted, largely free-flowing arid river systems on the planet.”
Grazier and Lock the Gate spokesperson Nick Holliday said this was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to prioritise protections for the floodplains.
“We’re happy this consultation paper has been released and that it contains an option for protecting this precious area from the dangers of fracking,” Mr Holliday said.
“The Queensland Lake Eyre Basin sustains a thriving organic beef industry and incredible ecology … fracking threatens all this.”
– AAP
