Issues

• Water Quality
• Water Quantity and Water Use
• Groundwater
• Health and Extent of Native Riparian Vegetation
• Aquatic Health
• Wetlands
• Wild Rivers

• Land Use and Inland Waters

At a glance

The issue

A wild river is a river of natural origin, in which the biological, hydrological and geomorphological processes of river flow and intimately linked parts of its catchment, have not been significantly altered by modern or colonial society. Wild rivers may include permanent, seasonal or underground watercourses.

Disturbances associated with a range of human activities can lead directly-or indirectly-to physical, chemical or biological impacts or other less tangible losses of wild river values. The Wild Rivers Program was initiated by the Australian Heritage Commission to develop a systematic identification of Australia's wild rivers, and create guidelines for the management of wild river values.

This 'At a glance' section provides an overview of the wild rivers issue. More detailed information and references are available in the Wild Rivers Issue Report. An indicator for Wild Rivers is included within the report.

A number of recommendations that are related to the issue of wild rivers are also provided.

Favourable news

• Tasmanian wild rivers make up 25% of the total rivers distinguished on the 1:250,000 scale Auslig topographic maps and TOPO-250K digital database. The total length of wild rivers in the State is 9,907 km, the majority located in the south-west.
   
• Ninety-six percent of the identified Tasmanian wild rivers are within the Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative reserve system as defined in the Regional Forest Agreement.
   
• At a national level, Conservation Guidelines for the Management of Wild River Values have been developed as a voluntary tool for government and non-government land managers (Environment Australia 1998).
   
• The development of a strategic framework for improved management of the environmental protection of freshwater ecosystem values has commenced in Tasmania. This includes a program to identify freshwater ecosystem values in Tasmania and the development of a conservation system based on comprehensive, adequate and representative principles.
   
• A conservation, management and extension strategy for fluvial systems has been developed by DPIWE (Jerie et al. 2003).
   
• Significant progress has been made in setting Protected Environmental Values.
   

Unfavourable news

• Limitations exist in the wild rivers assessment due to the underlying assumptions in the river disturbance model and the supporting data used. A lack of information available on river condition contributes to these limitations.
   

Uncertain news

• The results of the 1998 Wild Rivers assessment are considered preliminary. Alterations to both the assessment tools and process are considered necessary to provide an improved wild rivers inventory and enable monitoring of wild river condition and protection status.
   
• It is uncertain how the Tasmanian Wild Rivers assessment compares to other Australian states as variations in both the criteria and methodology employed by the states make direct comparisons impossible.
   

• Issue Report - continued in depth