Mapping the Macintyre River – Macintyre-Dumaresq Confluence to Mungindi: Aquatic Habitat Mapping to Inform Water Management

About the document

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Office contracted the NSW Department of Primary Industries – Fisheries to undertake mapping of important fish habitat along the lower Macintyre and Barwon Rivers.

The project undertaken in 2019-20 and 2020-21 mapped 327 km of habitat along the Macintyre and Barwon Rivers from Toomelah Weir to Mungindi Weir.

Information collected as part of the habitat mapping project was used to identify relationships between river flow height and habitat availability for native fish. Commence to inundate heights were recorded and analysed for large woody habitat, rootballs, bank overhangs, in-channel benches, and entry points to connected wetlands to identify the river flows required to inundate these features. As part of the project, NSW DPI – Fisheries also created an infographic on ‘homes for fish’.

The report provides important ecological information that has informed the adaptive management of Commonwealth environmental water, including recent watering actions in the northern Murray-Darling Basin.

For further information on these actions refer to:

• History - Border Rivers
• The Northern Rivers

Further information

• Aquatic Habitat Mapping to Inform Water Management

NSW Department of Primary Industries - Fisheries staff mapping the Boomi Weir Pool as part of the Macintyre habitat mapping project, July 2020. Photo: NSW Department of Primary Industries Fisheries.