Queensland
Across the state, an estimated 97% of pre-clear extent of palustrine and lacustrine wetlands remains. The estimated historical loss of wetlands is unevenly distributed across drainage divisions and basins:
- 52% remains in the North East Coast (non-Great Barrier Reef) division
- 89% remains in the North East Coast (Great Barrier Reef) division
- close to 100% remains in other divisions.
For all reporting periods since 2001, we have seen continuing losses. The rate of loss of these freshwater wetlands were:
- 2001 - 2005: 36ha/yr
- 2005 - 2009: 283ha/yr
- 2009 - 2013: 42ha/yr and
- 2013 - 2017: 74ha/yr.
The overall loss during the 2017–2019 period was 385ha, or 193ha/yr, that equates to <0.01%. The divisions with the highest loss for 2017-2019 were:
- Murray Darling (208ha, <0.01%)
- North East Coast (Great Barrier Reef) division (129ha, <0.01%).
The estimated historical and current loss of wetlands has mainly occurred due to drainage, clearing or levelling of lowland parts of catchments associated with:
- intensive agriculture
- urbanisation
- infrastructure.
The greatest losses have occurred in palustrine systems.
Between 2001 and 2019, palustrine wetlands loss decreased from 371ha/yr (2001–2005) to 197ha/yr (2017–2019).
In addition to the drainage divisions, the ‘other’ category represented in the data includes islands within Queensland waters and discrepancies in catchment coverages and coastline.
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 and only statistics within each SoE report should be compared.
