Water Planning in Australia's Tropical North

The Tropical River's and Coastal Knowledge research project Collaborative Water Planning has released a .  The aim of this project was to identify ways to improve community participation in water planning for Australia's tropical north, and the summary report outlines legal and policy recommendations for reform, principles for improved collaboration in planning, good practices for improved Indigenous engagement, and a framework for monitoring and evaluating the quality of community involvement. The project is one of many undertaken by Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge research hub (TRaCK).

Why focus on water planning in Northern Australia?

Leading tropical river researchers and managers across Australia have come together to focus on the sustainability of rivers and catchments from Cape York to Broome. Northern Australia has the world's most significant concentration of river catchments that still retain their ecological integrity. The region also has a significant Indigenous population, expected within the next 30 years to comprise approximately 50 per cent of the total population in the north. Indigenous people have strong cultural connections with the rivers of northern Australia and continue to actively manage many of the region's river catchments. Increasing pressure to develop the catchments and water resources of Northern Australia necessitates the comprehensive water planning processes that incorporate environmental, social, cultural and economic factors, and in ways that effectively involve the expanding Indigenous population. In particular improved water planning for Northern Australia requires more effective engagement in all aspects of the planning process, including the development of planning tools, the assessment of the water resources, and the processes of determining water requirements for environmental and cultural purposes.

How was this addressed by the project?

TRaCK's Collaborative Water Planning Project sought to address this in two research phases. In the first phase, the team worked with participants from government, industry and the wider community in case-studies in the Ord River in Western Australia, the Gulf catchments of Queensland. Our earlier findings included results from a survey of water planners; a review of water planning literature, law and policy; and management of water disputes.

From two case studies in the Ord, Western Australia and the Gulf catchments, Queensland, the project identified factors that provide either barriers to collaboration and those that enable or encourage collaboration. Findings from the initial phase of the project, which took place from June 2007 to July 2009, are located in a series of reports, details of which are found at the end of this brochure and on the Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge website.

During the second and final phase of our project, from August 2008 to November 2009, we primarily worked in the Howard East Groundwater system near Darwin in the Northern Territory and in catchments in Queensland's Cape York. This summary gives more details on the outcomes of those components of the project, including practical recommendations and opportunities for improvement.