Abbot Bay Catchment
The Abbot Bay Catchment is one of 51 sub catchments of the larger Burdekin Catchment. The Abbot Bay Catchment covers an area of approximately 1188 square kilometres. This represents less than 1% of the entire Burdekin Catchment.
Contents
Subcatchments
Smaller Catchments within the Abbot Bay Catchment include:
Topography
The major water courses of the Abbot Bay Catchment are the Elliot River and Euri Creek. The Elliot River stretches from the south of this catchment off the MT Aberdeen National Park and Pine Hill (624 metres). The Stockyard Creek and Manning Camp Creeks join the Elliot River from the south-west in the vicinity of Mt View (GDA94 MGA Zone 55 593164E 7774580N). Butchers Creek joins the Elliot River from the East in the vicintiy of Glenmore Station (GDA94 MGA Zone 55 591654E 7782252N). Finley Creek drains off the slopes of MT Abbot(1056 metres) and unnamed feature (568 metres) at (GDA94 MGA Zone 55 584910E 7775273N), into the Elliot River 8 kilometres south of the Bruce Highway
Vegetation
Riparian Habitat
The following information is summarized from the ACTFR report: Assessing the condition of riparian vegetation in the Burdekin catchment using satellitte imagery and field surveys by Leo Lymburner and John Dowe. 2006. This report can be accessed from the report section below.
iTRARC analysis of Riparian Habitat indicates that the catchment condition has decreased since the 1970s primarily due to floodplain clearing and an increase in gullying/scalding within the catchment.
Wetlands
The following information is summarized from the ACTFR report: Assessing the condition of Wetlands in the Burdekin catchment using existing GIS and field knowledge for CCI by Mirjam Maughan, Damien Burrows, Barry Butler, Leo Lymburner and George Lukacs. 2006. This report can be accessed from the report section below.
The creek systems of this sub-division are ephemeral, only running for short periods after significant rainfall. The coastal freshwater wetlands are also mostly ephemeral or seasonal. Very little is known about these wetlands ecologically, and any permanent waterholes within the creeks are likely small in size and very vulnerable to disturbance. The Directory of Important Wetlands in Australia listing for this area is predominantly based on marine and estuarine wetlands. The freshwater fish fauna of the Don River was surveyed by Hogan and Vallance (1998) in relation to studies examining the possibility of building a water storage on the river. They found that freshwater fish diversity was limited, this probably being attributable to the ephemeral nature of the streams. This area supports a significant horticultural industry, based largely on groundwater extraction. It has and is still being examined for further irrigation development via a channel/pipeline from the Burdekin River. The potential impacts of such development require significant examination but Butler and Lukacs (1998) outlined some issues identified during a preliminary overview of the areas wetlands. Overall, the freshwater wetlands of the area are poorly known, but due to the types of developments that dominate the region (mostly cattle grazing) the departure from natural is considered to be relatively minor.
Abbot Bay wetland condition summary...
Water
Abbot Bay is one of the smaller of the Burdekin subcatchments (<1000 sq.km). Hillslope erosion is believed to be the major source of sediment and particulate nutrients influencing water quality within this subcatchment. Loss of sediment and associated particulate nutrients from hillslopes (supply) is considered to be relatively low at 165 kg/ha/yr compared to other subcatchments within the greater Burdekin catchment. The proportion of land with less than 50% ground cover is also relatively low at 12%. The moderate concentrations of sediments are a consequence of the low rainfall and thus, low mean annual flow within this system.
For more information see the Water Quality Information Page
Landuse
Mining
- Abbot Point Bulk Coal Pty Ltd (GDA94 MGA Zone 55 613080E 7799611N)
Grazing Land
Land Condition
Definition of ABCD land condition framework
No data available for land condition in the Abbot Bay subcatchment.
Ground Cover
No data available for Ground Cover in the Abbot Bay subcatchment.
Maps
Abbot Bay
Abbot Bay Landuse (focus on Abbot Bay)
Abbot Bay Wetlands
Abbot Bay Catchment - Google Image
Abbot Bay Geology
250K Topographic Base
Catchment Hillshade
Watercourses
Minor Catchments
Please feel free to download the maps in the following formats:
- Abbot Bay Map as *.pdf (requires Acrobat Reader)
- Abbot Bay Landuse Map as *.pdf (requires Acrobat Reader)
- Abbot Bay Geology Map as *.pdf (requires Acrobat Reader)
- Catchment Layer as *.kmz (requires Google Earth)
Photos
- AbbotBay2.jpg
- AbbotBay3.jpg
Reports
- Assessing the condition of Riparian Vegetation in the Burdekin catchment for CCI (2.8 Mb)
- Assessing the condition of Wetlands in the Burdekin catchment for CCI (10 Mb)
- Water Quality Issues in the Burdekin Region (3.8Mb)
- Monitoring of sediments and nutrients in the Burdekin Dry Tropics region: 2005-06 wet season (4.3 Mb)
- Event based Water Quality Monitoring in the Burdekin Dry Tropics Region: 2004/05 wet season (3.1 Mb)
- A report into the water quality condition of the Burdekin River and surrounds based on the AIMS end-of-catchment sampling program (13.2 Mb)
- Limnological assessment and benchmarking of key sentinel wetlands in the Burdekin catchment
- Improved SedNet Modelling of Grazing Land in the Burdekin Catchment(812Kb)
- Economic, Cultural and Environmental values of streams and wetlands in the Burdekin Dry Tropics region. (23.5Mb)
- Draft High Ecological Value waters assessment for BDT WQIP
