An Empirically-based sediment budget for the Normanby Basin: Sediment Sources, Sinks & Drivers on the Cape York Savannah

ABSTRACT

This project report contributes to the Australian Government’s Reef Rescue program. The project scope included development of a new empirically driven sediment budget model, incorporating improved understanding of water quality management, and undertaking on-ground rehabilitation research. These activities are combined to address the following core questions:

1. What is the proportional contribution of suspended sediment from eastern Cape York rivers to the GBR lagoon compared with the rest of the GBR catchments?
2. To what extent are the contemporary sediment loads from this area elevated above pre-European levels?
3. Which sub-catchments or stream segments are disproportionately contributing to the total sediment load?
4. Of the current key sediment sources, which ones are elevated as a result of land-use intensification, and can anything be done to practically reduce the supply of sediment from these sources?

This document describes the development of an empirically driven sediment budget for the catchments draining to Princess Charlotte Bay (PCB). This includes the Laura/Normanby/Kennedy Rivers, the North Kennedy, Hann, Annie Rivers, Saltwater Creek and Stewart River. This budget identifies the major sediment sources, erosion processes, sediment stores and transport pathways for the suspended sediment component of the sediment budget at the catchment scale (i.e. end of system loads). The existing Brodie et al. (2003) sediment budget formulation effectively acted as a hypothesis to guide our data collection.

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This report is set out as an extended Executive Summary (62pp, main document) that references 17 supporting Appendices.

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