2. Regional profile of the Lake Eyre Basin catchments Alexander Herr Tim Smith Lynn Brake Enquiries should be addressed to: Alexander Herr CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems Gungahlin Homestead, Barton Highway GPO Box 284, Canberra, ACT 2601 Email: [email protected] The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government. The Commonwealth does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly thorough the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this publication. The work reported in this publication was supported by funding from the Australian Government. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of Desert Knowledge CRC or its Participants. Citation Herr A, Smith T and Brake L. 2009. Regional profile of the Lake Eyre Basin catchments. In Measham TG, Brake L (Eds.). People, communities and economies of the Lake Eyre Basin, DKCRC Research Report 45, Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre, Alice Springs. pp. 41–88. Acknowledgements Funding for this study was provided by • Natural Heritage Trust (NHT, http://www.nht.gov.au/) • Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC, http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/) • Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Division of Sustainable Ecosystems (CSIRO CSE, http://www.cse.csiro.au/). The authors acknowledge the valuable contributions to the regional profiles made by the project steering group (Angus Emmott, Geoff Lawrence, Alwyn Mckenzie, John Childs, John Gavin, Krista Hancy, and Mike Chuk), and other CSIRO project researchers (Silva Larson, Cathy Robinson, Tom Measham, Angela Wardell-Johnson, Mark Stafford Smith, Tim Lynam, Anne Leitch and Beau Hug), by DWLBC in SA and DNRMW in Qld, and BRS in Canberra. Also thanks to the Desert Knowledge CRC, in particular Ange Vincent, Alice Roughley, and Jan Ferguson. Kris Kleeman (MDBC), Krista Hancy (DEH), Jane Hoskins (DEH), John Maconochie (DWLBC), Michael Malavazos (PIRSA), Vol Norris (DEH), Mark Pierson (DNREA), Tim Ransley (BRS) and James Shaddick (DCQLD) are thanked for providing support in obtaining spatial data. This document was circulated as a draft at the Lake Eyre Basin Conference in September 2006, particularly through the Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Forum’s Community Advisory Committee (‘CAC’) and the State and Commonwealth agency staff (‘officers’) involved. Comments received from various community and agency readers were incorporated in the document. The edited draft was then made available to the CAC and government officers on a private website location for finalisation through the remainder of 2006. The CAC meeting in Canberra on 28th March 2007 agreed that the document should be released publicly and committed resources to its circulation. It was published separately from this volume as Herr A, Smith, T and Brake L 2007, Regional Profile of the Lake Eyre Basin Catchments, Desert Knowledge CRC, Alice Springs. 42 Desert Knowledge CRC People, communities and economies of the Lake Eyre Basin Ch 2: Regional profile of the Lake Eyre Basin catchments pp. 41–88 Contents Preface .................................................................................................................................................. ����������������������� 46 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... ����������������������� 47 1.1 The Lake Eyre Basin context .............................................................................................. ����������������������� 47 1.2 Natural resource management in the LEB .......................................................................... ����������������������� 48 1.3 Overview of key findings .................................................................................................... ����������������������� 48 2. Topography and management arrangements .................................................................................... ����������������������� 50 2.1 LEB roads, major population centres and management boundaries ................................... ����������������������� 50 2.2 Floodplain areas .................................................................................................................. ����������������������� 50 2.3 Remoteness and health services .......................................................................................... ����������������������� 50 3. Land use and tenure ......................................................................................................................... ����������������������� 53 3.1 Land use in the LEB ........................................................................................................... ����������������������� 53 3.2 Tenure arrangement in the LEB .......................................................................................... ����������������������� 53 3.3 Native title and Aboriginal tenures ..................................................................................... ����������������������� 54 4. Biogeographical regions and landscape health ................................................................................ ����������������������� 54 4.1 Landscape health ................................................................................................................. ����������������������� 56 4.2 Landscape stress ................................................................................................................. ����������������������� 56 4.3 Hydrological conditions ..................................................................................................... ����������������������� 57 5. Biological and physical land conditions .......................................................................................... ����������������������� 57 5.1 Rainfall and evaporation ..................................................................................................... ����������������������� 59 5.2 Soil limitations of the LEB ................................................................................................. ����������������������� 59 5.3 The Great Artesian Basin groundwater source ................................................................... ����������������������� 59 6. Population statistics, sectorial information and wellbeing indices .................................................. ����������������������� 62 6.1 Administrative regions ........................................................................................................ ����������������������� 62 6.2 Aboriginal statistics ............................................................................................................. ����������������������� 64 6.3 General employment statistics and sectorial employment .................................................. ����������������������� 67 6.4 Socio-economic indices for areas – SEIFA ......................................................................... ����������������������� 69 6.5 Methods and data sources ................................................................................................... ����������������������� 70 7. Tourism and mining ......................................................................................................................... ����������������������� 70 8. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... ����������������������� 73 9. References ........................................................................................................................................ ����������������������� 74 Appendix A: Description of IBRA regions ......................................................................................... ����������������������� 76 Appendix B: Soil mapping descriptors and lookup table .................................................................... ����������������������� 78 Appendix C: Australian Standard Geographical Classification ........................................................... ����������������������� 79 Appendix D: Variable specifications for the SEIFA Indices ................................................................ ����������������������� 80 Appendix E: Further details to Figure 42 ............................................................................................ ����������������������� 84 People, communities and economies of the Lake Eyre Basin Desert Knowledge CRC 43 Ch 2: Regional profile of the Lake Eyre Basin catchments pp. 41–88 Figures Figure 1: LEB sub-catchments and regions ......................................................................................... ����������������������� 51 Figure 2: LEB state-based management authorities ............................................................................ ����������������������� 51 Figure 3: Multi-resolution Valley bottom flatness index of the LEB also showing ephemeral rivers and saltlakes ��� 51 Figure 4: Remoteness score of LEB locations and remoteness classification of the LEB ................. ����������������������� 51 Figure 5: Health services in the LEB ..................................................................................................