Controls on wild rivers
25.07.2006
THE Queensland Government has been forced to wind back an election promise to protect 18 pristine rivers from development.
A month after a moratorium was imposed on the wild rivers legislation, cabinet has agreed to apply modified controls to the Gregory, Settlement, Fraser, Hinchinbrook and Staaten rivers as well as Morning Inlet, which lie in the lower Gulf region and south of Cairns.
The moratorium will continue to apply to 12 other rivers on Cape York Peninsula while negotiations continue between cattlemen, traditional owners, miners and conservationists.
Two-kilometre buffer zones will be established along the newly protected river systems to keep development at bay.
Premier Peter Beattie said it was important that mining exploration in the northwest mining province -- the lower Gulf -- continue because of its economic importance.
But any exploration in the newly declared ``high preservation areas'' would be limited to low-impact activities. In the streambeds and on the river banks, only limited hand-sampling would be allowed.
Mr Beattie said tributaries would now fall into a secondary category, with mining activity not permitted within 100m of the watercourse.
