Plane Catchment Story - Natural values

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• Overview
• Physical features
• Natural values
• Subcatchment key messages
• Sandy subcatchment
• Sandringham Lagoon subcatchment
• Rocky Dam Creek subcatchment
• Acknowledgements

View the Plane catchment story

Transcript

Natural values

A landscape is bound by the connections between soil types, topography, rainfall and water movement. In turn all these elements coming together affect what vegetation grows in a particular place, and these physical features and the vegetation growing in a location combine to determine what animals will inhabit that area.

Main image. Dense riparian vegetation, lower Rocky Dam Creek - provided by Matthew Moore.

Table of content

1. Vegetation
2. Vegetation clearing
3. Fauna
4. Protected areas

Vegetation

Water that falls as rain, or moves over the land as runoff, is slowed by vegetation, which then allows it to filter down into the soil and sub-soil. Slowing the flow of surface water helps to retain it longer on the land which in turn allows it to filter down through the soil and bedrock to recharge groundwater aquifers.

Water moving slowly across the surface of the land also reduces the potential for erosion to occur and reduces the associated issues with water quality and sedimentation further downstream. Reducing the speed of runoff also plays a role in protecting banks and parts of the landscape prone to gully and rill erosion.

Vegetation impacts on water flow - conceptual diagram by Queensland Government.

Historically, eucalypt woodlands and forests grew across most of the area. Higher elevations supported rainforests and scrubs and large areas of coastal communities including heaths in the south. Lower elevations supported melaleuca woodlands and mangroves and saltmarshes, together with small areas of tussock grasslands and forblands (low-growing vegetation) in the north.

These different vegetation types combine to make up the preclearing vegetation of the Plane catchment.*

The wetlands and creeks of the catchment provide habitat for many important aquatic species, including plants, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. These areas are also used for camping, fishing, crabbing and boating.

Water mouse habitat, Ceriops tagal at Cape Palmerston - provided by Tina Ball, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

Water mouse core habitat, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza at Freshwater Point - provided by Tina Ball, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

Wetland types - conceptual model provided by Queensland Government.

Main image. Mangroves, West Hill Creek - provided by Reef Catchments.

*Broad Vegetation Groups derived from Regional Ecosystems (REs), which are vegetation communities in a bioregion that are consistently associated with a particular combination of geology, landform and soil.

Vegetation clearing

Large parts of the Plane catchment have been cleared* for a range of land uses, particularly cane farming and grazing on native pastures. Large areas of vegetation have regrown** since initial clearing.

Explore the Swipe Map using either of the options below.***

• Interactive Swipe App. where you can zoom into cleared areas and use the swipe bar (ESRI version)
• Interactive Swipe App. where you can use the swipe bar. Use the white slide bar at the bottom of the map for a comparison (HTML version)

Vegetation clearing and associated activities change the shape of the landscape and can modify surface and groundwater flow patterns.

Main image. Land cleared for grazing - provided by Reef Catchments.

*The 2011 remnant vegetation mapping was undertaken at a map scale of 1:100,000 and 1:50,000 in part (including the Wet Tropics and Southeastern Queensland) and based on the Landsat imagery for 2011. It does not show all clearing, particularly relatively thin linear infrastructure.

**Smaller areas of regrowth are not shown in this mapping. This dataset was prepared to support certain category C additions to the Regulated Vegetation Management Map under the Vegetation Management (Reinstatement) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2016. This dataset is described as: The 2013 areas of non-remnant native woody vegetation that have not been cleared between 1988 and 2014 that are homogenous for at least 0.5 hectare and occur in clumps of at least 2 hectares in coastal regions and 5 hectares elsewhere.

***Depending on your internet browser, you may experience issues with one or the other. Please note this application takes time to load.

Fauna

The catchment provides important habitat a wide range of fauna and many of conservation significance.

Mangrove gerygone in dense Avicennia marina foliage - provided by Jennifer White of Shiller Images.

Lowland wetlands support waterbird roosting, feeding and breeding areas and are important for both abundance and species diversity. Lowland freshwater and estuarine systems are connected and provide important habitat for a range of migratory fishes, which need to move for breeding, food and other resources. There are barriers to fish passage in some areas.

Freshwater systems, including natural and modified (ponded pasture) systems, support diverse fish communities, large numbers of waterbirds, platypus, frogs, invertebrates and other fauna. Ponded pastures are a 'permanent pasture system where water is impounded by banks and adapted grasses are grown in the water for green high quality fodder when the water dries off'.* 

Estuarine systems provide important feeding areas for the estuarine crocodile, water mice and native water rats, and support marine turtles, dolphins, dugongs and fisheries species such as barramundi and mud crab.

The large native water rat, which can grow to 40 centimetres long - provided by Pioneer Catchment and Landcare Group.

The much smaller water mouse, which can grow to ten centimetres - provided by Tina Ball, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

The native water mouse (Xeromys myoides) grows to approximately ten centimetres long, whereas the native water rat (Hydromys chrysogaster) has a relatively large streamlined body up to 40 centimetres long with a distinctive white tailed tip. The water rat is generally found in permanent fresh or brackish water, with a wide distribution across much of Australia. The water mouse typically occurs in saltmarsh, mangroves and adjacent freshwater wetlands from Proserpine to south of the New South Wales border, and parts of the Northern Territory. 

Coastal wetlands are also important for coastal sheath-tail bats (Taphozous australis). These bats forage above the canopy of coastal dune scrubland, grasslands, coastal heathland, open eucalypt forest, melaleuca wetlands and mangrove forests. They roost in small colonies in well-ventilated sea caves, which make the sea caves extremely important habitat. Radio tracking data from the Mackay/Sarina/Whitsunday area supports research in other geographic areas, whereby foraging is limited to within 15 kilometres from the roost and within three kilometres of the coast. 

Main image. Dainty tree frog - provided by Reef Catchments.

*'Miles and Wildin (1996) in Challen and Long (2004) - see links at the end of this map journal for further information.

Protected areas

The Plane catchment includes several areas protected by the State, include the relatively large Cape Palmerston National Park and several state forests.

Cape Palmerston headland looking north - provided by Tina Ball, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

The catchment also includes nature refuges*, wetlands listed on the Directory of Important Wetlands of Australia (DIWA), and parts of declared Fish Habitat Areas (FHAs), Dugong Protection Areas and the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) World Heritage Area (WHA) and marine park.

Protected areas provide important habitat for a variety of flora and fauna.

Main image. Mangroves of Marion Creek, Notch Point - provided by Reef Catchments.

*Protected areas of Queensland are those set aside for the conservation of natural and cultural values or for production of resources, including timber and quarry material. The mapped nature refuges are areas gazetted through a voluntary conservation agreement between the state government and private land owners.

Last updated: 18 November 2025