Queensland
Freshwater wetlands:
- improve water quality
- provide water for stock and irrigation
- provide habitat for many dependent native species.
Protected areas offer freshwater wetlands one of the best conservation measures as the human pressures on the systems are limited by legislative protection. Protected areas, listed under the Nature Conservation Act 1992, include:
- national parks
- national parks (scientific)
- national park (Cape York Aboriginal land)
- conservation parks
- resources reserve
- nature refuges.
Queensland has 370,000 hectares of palustrine (swamp) and lacustrine (lake) wetlands in protected areas. This represents 10.7% of all 3.463 million hectares of palustrine and lacustrine wetlands in Queensland.
Of these freshwater wetland systems in protected areas, 83% (308,900 hectares) are palustrine wetlands and 10.7% of all palustrine wetlands in Queensland.
Lacustrine wetlands in protected areas account for 11% of total lacustrine wetlands across the state.
National parks contain the majority (48%) of palustrine and lacustrine wetland systems in protected areas, with 176,300 hectares. These systems are:
- 84% palustrine wetlands
- 16% lacustrine wetlands.
Around 3.093 million hectares of palustrine and lacustrine wetlands are not in protected areas, including:
- 2.602 million hectares of palustrine wetlands
- 491,400 hectares of lacustrine systems.
* Figures provided are rounded to the nearest 100 hectares.
Disclaimer: The State of the Environment Report 2024 (SoE2024) wetlands statistics are not comparable with previous SoE Report figures. The SoE2020 statistics are based on the most recently available wetlands and other updated data. The different versions of the wetlands mapping (e.g. 2016 – v4; 2020 – v5; 2024 – v6) and other datasets are not comparable due to many factors, such as updated source data and improved data capture methods. Therefore, differences between SoE Reports do not reflect an actual wetland extent change on the –ground. You can only compare statistics within each SoE Report.
