Holdings in the four Burnett River sub catchments.
There were 3,586 holdings in the Burnett River catchment. Of these, 1,067 holdings were located in the Barker and Barambah Creeks sub catchment, 806 holdings in the Boyne and Auburn Rivers sub catchment, 1,191 holdings in the Lower Burnett River sub catchment and 523 holdings in the Upper Burnett River sub catchment.
Barker and Barambah Creeks sub catchment
The Barker and Barambah Creeks join the Burnett River between Gayndah and Mt Lawless at the north-western tip of this sub catchment, which occupies 597,000 hectares of land. The Bjelke-Petersen Dam supplies water to the farming areas of Redgate, Mondure and Murgon. Beef cattle grazing dominates the agricultural activity in this sub catchment with broadacre cropping and horticulture also practised.
The main activities in the Barker and Barambah Creeks sub catchment were broadacre cropping (359 holdings) and keeping beef cattle (960 holdings). This sub catchment also had the largest number of holdings (225) undertaking horticulture. There were 162 holdings undertaking broadacre cropping and 874 holdings keeping beef cattle. In this sub catchment 13% of all holdings reported considering nutrients introduced by fertilising prior to determining fertiliser application rates.
In the Barker and Barambah Creeks sub catchment 20% of all holdings reported actively controlling stock access to riparian areas.
Boyne and Auburn Rivers sub catchment
Covering an area of 1,305,000 hectares, the Boyne and Auburn Rivers sub catchment is the largest in the Burnett River catchment. Keeping beef cattle was the dominant agricultural activity with broadacre cropping and horticulture also practised. Located in the south eastern corner of the sub-catchment lies the town of Kingaroy. The Boyne and Stuart Rivers flow into the Boondooma dam, which has a 204,200 megalitre storage capacity and was purpose-built to supply water to the Tarong Power Station, which lies in the Barker and Barambah Creeks sub catchment.
The Boyne and Auburn Rivers sub catchment had 182 holdings reporting broadacre cropping and 745 holdings reporting keeping beef cattle. In this sub catchment 12% of holdings considered nutrients introduced by fertilising prior to determining fertiliser application rates. In this sub catchment, 19% of holdings actively controlled stock access to riparian areas.
Lower Burnett River sub catchment
The Lower Burnett River sub catchment covers an area of 574,000 hectares and extends out to the north-east to include the City of Bundaberg and is the only Burnett River sub catchment that contains low lying coastal land. This largely explains why the Lower Burnett sub catchment accounted for all sugar cane growing in the entire Burnett River catchment (258 holdings). Situated approximately 80kms south-west of Bundaberg is the Paradise Dam, completed in 2005 with a capacity of 300,000 megalitres. The Burnett River rises just north of Monto and flows south through Eidsvold and continues through to the Lower Burnett River Sub catchment town of Mundubbera where it begins heading in a north-easterly direction towards the City of Bundaberg and the Coral Sea.
Just under a quarter (23%) of holdings in the Lower Burnett River sub catchment reported they had considered nutrients introduced by fertilising before determining fertiliser application rates. This was the highest proportion of the four sub catchments. Also in this sub catchment 15% of holdings in the Lower Burnett River sub catchment reported actively controlling stock access to riparian areas.
Upper Burnett River sub catchment
The Upper Burnett River sub catchment occupies 864,000 hectares of land making it the second largest sub catchment within the Burnett River catchment. Cattle grazing is the predominant agricultural activity.
In this sub catchment, 4% of all holdings considered nutrients introduced by fertilising before determining fertiliser application rates.Nearly half (45%) of all holdings in the Upper Burnett River sub catchment actively controlled stock access to riparian areas. This was more than double that reported in any other Burnett River sub catchment.
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