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Galilee Basin
The Galilee Basin is a large inland geological basin in the western Queensland region of Australia. The Galilee Basin is part of a larger Carboniferous to Mid-Triassic basin system that contains the Cooper Basin, situated towards the south-west of the Galilee Basin, and the Bowen Basin to the east. The Galilee Basin covers a total area of approximately 247,000 square kilometres (95,000 sq mi). The basin is underlain by the Carboniferous Drummond Basin and overlain by the Cretaceous – Jurassic Eromanga Basin. The Triassic and younger sediments of the Galilee Basin form the basal sequence of the Great Artesian Basin drainage basin.
The Galilee Basin spans elements of the upper Lake Eyre drainage catchment, Bulloo river basin and Murray–Darling Basin and the adjacent eastern highlands. The basin also extends into the upper coastward Burdekin river basin and Fitzroy river basin to the north-east and east and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the north-west. This geographic complexity ensures that the Galilee Basin spans a number of physiographic regions with a relatively complex pattern in the eastern highlands and headwaters. Lake Buchanan and Lake Galilee within the Galilee Basin are classified as inland wetlands, with Lake Buchanan described as both a seasonal/intermittent saline lake and a seasonal saline marsh and Lake Galilee also as a seasonal/intermittent saline lake and as a seasonal/intermittent freshwater pond and marsh.
The climate of the Galilee Basin is generally hot and dry throughout, becoming more extreme towards the west. Monthly mean temperatures show daytime summer temperatures are mostly in the mid-30s °C with winter overnight temperatures most commonly between 5 and 12 °C. The temperature records from the past 36 years shows values ranging from −2 °C to 44 °C. ‘Hot days’, with temperatures exceeding 35 °C, can be expected up to 74 to 101 days per year. ‘Frost days’ with screen temperatures below 2 °C can be expected up to 1.4 to 10.4 days per year. Relative humidity is highest in the mornings and during February, while the lowest is in the mid to late spring mornings and afternoons. The annual rainfall within the Galilee Basin ranges between 150 mm and 1,477 mm, with an average rainfall of between 492 mm and 610 mm depending on location. Rainfall in December through March accounts for approximately 65 per cent of annual mean rainfall. The wettest month on average is January and the driest month is May.
The Galilee Basin covers 14 local government areas; Barcaldine; Barcoo; Blackall-Tambo; Central Highlands; Charters Towers; Diamantina; Flinders; Longreach; Maranoa; McKinlay; Murweh; Quilpie; Richmond & Winton, with none entirely included within the Galilee Basin. The basin spans parts of nine planning regions and five natural resource management regions. The Galilee Basin overlies the mining districts of Charters Towers; Dalby; Emerald; Mount Isa; Quilpie & Winton. The Galilee Basin overlies all three Queensland Mining Regions "northern, central and southern". Pastoral grazing is by far the most frequent land use (greater than 95%) and conservation reserves occupy around 3%. Wetlands of national significance occupy 0.3% of the area of the Galilee subregion, and riverine floodplains that are also potentially water dependent occupy a further 15.5% of the area. Most of the Galilee Basin is within the Desert Channels natural resource management (NRM) region. In the 2011 census there were less than 20,000 residents in the Galilee Basin region (<12 people per 1 km2). The estimated residential population of the Galilee Basin region has decreased by −0.7% from 2001 to 2015. Rural towns and their respective populations within the Galilee Basin is provided Table 1.
The indigenous heritage of the Galilee Basin is complex, with at least 12 Indigenous tribal or language groups in four separate language regions—Eyre, Gulf, Northeast and Riverine. There are native title claims covering large portions of the basin and a number of Indigenous Land Use Agreements in place.
The major economic activities in the Galilee Basin are primary production (mostly rangeland grazing), government services, retail, education and tourist-related activities. The dominant occupation (32.5%) is in the agriculture, forestry and fishing category. With limited forestry restricted to the south-eastern corner and no coastal connection for fishery, this category is dominated by sheep and beef production. The second highest occupation is government services, which includes local government and health and social service care (19.8%). This is followed by five categories including retail trade; construction; education and training (schools mostly); transport, postal and warehousing; and accommodation and food services, which all provide significant employment (5 to 8%) in the Galilee Basin. Currently mining is a low-level occupation category within the subregion at 1.3% but this may increase during the constructional and/or operational phases of projected coal mining and coal seam gas extraction developments, with possible impacts on other employment categories.
The Galilee Basin has a diversity of ecological communities and species as a consequence of the interactions between its large area, several biologically significant climatic gradients, the biogeographic effects of eight river basins, and the importance of landscape form driving water and soil redistribution in semi-arid environments of inland Australia. This diversity is expressed through the presence of 31 subregions of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia and 46 major vegetation subgroups of the National Vegetation Information System.
The most common terrestrial vegetation NVIS subgroups are (i) Mitchell grass (Astrebla) tussock grasslands, (ii) Eucalyptus open woodlands with a grassy understorey, and (iii) cleared, non-native vegetation. Other vegetation subgroups occur with lower frequency and form a complex mosaic that gradually changes from north-east to south-west across the Galilee Basin. The woody components of these vegetation types have been subject to clearance over 16% of the Galilee Basin, mainly to the east, with the aim of improving pasture productivity. The annual rate of clearance has declined since 2005. Pasture components are reported to have stable condition, except for a recent decline in the north-east corner.
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Galilee Basin
The Galilee Basin is a large inland geological basin in the western Queensland region of Australia. The Galilee Basin is part of a larger Carboniferous to Mid-Triassic basin system that contains the Cooper Basin, situated towards the south-west of the Galilee Basin, and the Bowen Basin to the east. The Galilee Basin covers a total area of approximately 247,000 square kilometres (95,000 sq mi). The basin is underlain by the Carboniferous Drummond Basin and overlain by the Cretaceous – Jurassic Eromanga Basin. The Triassic and younger sediments of the Galilee Basin form the basal sequence of the Great Artesian Basin drainage basin.
The Galilee Basin spans elements of the upper Lake Eyre drainage catchment, Bulloo river basin and Murray–Darling Basin and the adjacent eastern highlands. The basin also extends into the upper coastward Burdekin river basin and Fitzroy river basin to the north-east and east and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the north-west. This geographic complexity ensures that the Galilee Basin spans a number of physiographic regions with a relatively complex pattern in the eastern highlands and headwaters. Lake Buchanan and Lake Galilee within the Galilee Basin are classified as inland wetlands, with Lake Buchanan described as both a seasonal/intermittent saline lake and a seasonal saline marsh and Lake Galilee also as a seasonal/intermittent saline lake and as a seasonal/intermittent freshwater pond and marsh.
The climate of the Galilee Basin is generally hot and dry throughout, becoming more extreme towards the west. Monthly mean temperatures show daytime summer temperatures are mostly in the mid-30s °C with winter overnight temperatures most commonly between 5 and 12 °C. The temperature records from the past 36 years shows values ranging from −2 °C to 44 °C. ‘Hot days’, with temperatures exceeding 35 °C, can be expected up to 74 to 101 days per year. ‘Frost days’ with screen temperatures below 2 °C can be expected up to 1.4 to 10.4 days per year. Relative humidity is highest in the mornings and during February, while the lowest is in the mid to late spring mornings and afternoons. The annual rainfall within the Galilee Basin ranges between 150 mm and 1,477 mm, with an average rainfall of between 492 mm and 610 mm depending on location. Rainfall in December through March accounts for approximately 65 per cent of annual mean rainfall. The wettest month on average is January and the driest month is May.
The Galilee Basin covers 14 local government areas; Barcaldine; Barcoo; Blackall-Tambo; Central Highlands; Charters Towers; Diamantina; Flinders; Longreach; Maranoa; McKinlay; Murweh; Quilpie; Richmond & Winton, with none entirely included within the Galilee Basin. The basin spans parts of nine planning regions and five natural resource management regions. The Galilee Basin overlies the mining districts of Charters Towers; Dalby; Emerald; Mount Isa; Quilpie & Winton. The Galilee Basin overlies all three Queensland Mining Regions "northern, central and southern". Pastoral grazing is by far the most frequent land use (greater than 95%) and conservation reserves occupy around 3%. Wetlands of national significance occupy 0.3% of the area of the Galilee subregion, and riverine floodplains that are also potentially water dependent occupy a further 15.5% of the area. Most of the Galilee Basin is within the Desert Channels natural resource management (NRM) region. In the 2011 census there were less than 20,000 residents in the Galilee Basin region (<12 people per 1 km2). The estimated residential population of the Galilee Basin region has decreased by −0.7% from 2001 to 2015. Rural towns and their respective populations within the Galilee Basin is provided Table 1.
The indigenous heritage of the Galilee Basin is complex, with at least 12 Indigenous tribal or language groups in four separate language regions—Eyre, Gulf, Northeast and Riverine. There are native title claims covering large portions of the basin and a number of Indigenous Land Use Agreements in place.
The major economic activities in the Galilee Basin are primary production (mostly rangeland grazing), government services, retail, education and tourist-related activities. The dominant occupation (32.5%) is in the agriculture, forestry and fishing category. With limited forestry restricted to the south-eastern corner and no coastal connection for fishery, this category is dominated by sheep and beef production. The second highest occupation is government services, which includes local government and health and social service care (19.8%). This is followed by five categories including retail trade; construction; education and training (schools mostly); transport, postal and warehousing; and accommodation and food services, which all provide significant employment (5 to 8%) in the Galilee Basin. Currently mining is a low-level occupation category within the subregion at 1.3% but this may increase during the constructional and/or operational phases of projected coal mining and coal seam gas extraction developments, with possible impacts on other employment categories.
The Galilee Basin has a diversity of ecological communities and species as a consequence of the interactions between its large area, several biologically significant climatic gradients, the biogeographic effects of eight river basins, and the importance of landscape form driving water and soil redistribution in semi-arid environments of inland Australia. This diversity is expressed through the presence of 31 subregions of the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia and 46 major vegetation subgroups of the National Vegetation Information System.
The most common terrestrial vegetation NVIS subgroups are (i) Mitchell grass (Astrebla) tussock grasslands, (ii) Eucalyptus open woodlands with a grassy understorey, and (iii) cleared, non-native vegetation. Other vegetation subgroups occur with lower frequency and form a complex mosaic that gradually changes from north-east to south-west across the Galilee Basin. The woody components of these vegetation types have been subject to clearance over 16% of the Galilee Basin, mainly to the east, with the aim of improving pasture productivity. The annual rate of clearance has declined since 2005. Pasture components are reported to have stable condition, except for a recent decline in the north-east corner.