Fitzroy NRM region

The Fitzroy Natural Resource Management (NRM) region is the largest NRM region by area in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Region. Fitzroy covers most of what is often known as Central Queensland. The principal city is Rockhampton, with Gladstone and Emerald as other major cities. It covers approximately 15.8 million hectares, and had a population of 227,800 people in 2016. Fitzroy is the largest river catchment within the GBR Region - all water run-off flows into the Fitzroy River and eventually into the GBR lagoon. A marine extension of the Fitzroy NRM region is also defined by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, marking the marine area of the Great Barrier Reef most closely associated with the Fitzroy NRM region.

Agriculture and Mining are key industries in the Fitzroy NRM region. Agriculture derives benefits from ecosystem services. Ecosystem accounting provides a framework to measure changes in ecosystem condition, ecosystem services and ecosystem assets in both physical and monetary terms. This feature article presents a summary set of ecosystem accounts for the Fitzroy NRM region, including; a land cover account; a marine condition summary; and provisioning services for the agriculture, fishing and aquaculture industries. It demonstrates some of the ways in which more detailed integrated information can be utilised from these GBR accounts.

Land cover affects the provision of ecosystem services over time and is critical to evaluating and monitoring trends in natural resources. Changes in land cover have many potential drivers, including human activities and natural phenomena. Examples of human activities that drive land cover change include urban development, crop and pasture management and industrial activity. Natural drivers of land cover change include flood events, bushfires and seasonal climatic variation.

In 2014-15 ‘Trees’ covered the largest area the Fitzroy with 7.8 million hectares (49%), followed by ‘Grasslands’ and ‘Rainfed lands’, accounting for 6.1 million hectares (39%) and 1.5 million hectares (10%), respectively. Out of the six NRM regions, Fitzroy had the greatest amount of ‘Rainfed Pastures’ with 43% of total ‘Rainfed Pastures’ in the entire GBR Region. Land use data by area and value were not available at an NRM region level but are available at GBR level in Land Account: Queensland, Experimental Estimates, 2011 - 2016 (cat. no. 4609.0.55.003) (Land Account), which featured an article, Accounting for Land Changes in the Great Barrier Reef.

Land cover data also shows evidence of the high levels of rainfall, discussed below, in 2010-11. The area covered by 'Waterbodies' was lower in 2014-15 than in the high rainfall and flood event year of 2010-11. The Wetlands land cover category, which includes both flood plains and wetland areas, recorded a large decrease, however this was mainly due to the 2010-11 period experiencing floods. A similar story applies to the decrease in the land cover of Trees, reflecting changes from a wet, green period in 2011 to the drier 2015 period. The scope of the land cover component of the Land Account only covers the period between 2010-11 to 2014-15.

Marine condition in the Fitzroy NRM region extension area of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has been generally declining since 2006-07. A key event for Fitzroy during this period was the extremely high rainfall year of 2010-11 which, along with floods and the expanded waterbodies mentioned above, saw water discharge into the GBR lagoon rise to 38,537 GL. This discharge was nearly four times the level of any other individual year in this period, over four times the average for the period, and more than forty times the discharge seen in the driest recent year of 2005-06. The discharge is also, naturally, associated with elevated loads of pollutants flowing into the Reef lagoon.

The near doubling of regional rainfall in 2010-11 caused larger increases in river discharge.

This flooding event impacted marine condition from 2010-11 into subsequent years. The impact can be shown in water quality, coral condition and seagrass (Fig 1). In 2010-11, water quality fell immediately, then in 2011-12 coral and seagrass condition was impacted. Water quality has improved slightly since 2012-13, due to low levels of disturbance and less rainfall. Agricultural activity across the period, as discussed below, does not appear to have been strongly impacted by the extreme rainfall and flooding event, with cattle and crop production remaining fairly similar to proceeding and subsequent years,

Compared with its pre-European condition, the Fitzroy NRM region landscape has a reduced capacity to provide regulatory services including erosion protection, water quality and purification, water regulation and hazard reduction. Changes in capacity arise from both changes in the extent and types of coastal ecosystems (estuaries, woodlands, etc.) and land use (conservation, urban areas, production grazing, sugar etc.) taking place within each NRM region.

As per land cover data above, in the Fitzroy region, about 10% of land was covered by rainfed and irrigated agricultural land. However, in addition to this, a large share of other land such as grasslands and tree-covered areas were also subject to grazing, and Figure 4 below shows that much of the Fitzroy basin is classified as non-remnant vegetation, which is associated with reduced regulatory services in comparison to a natural state.

Source: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority

One of the key industries that derive benefits from ecosystem services in the GBR Region is Agriculture. The Fitzroy NRM region is one of the primary locations within the Great Barrier Reef Catchment Area for agricultural activity so is a key case study for the size and health of the Agriculture industry. Land cover data shows that Fitzroy accounts for 42% of the total amount of pastures for grazing within the GBR Region. This grazing land accounts for 74% of all agricultural land cover in the Fitzroy NRM region.

The Fitzroy ecosystem provides a number of benefits to the population through provision of ecosystem services to agriculture and fishing production. These inputs play a key role in employment and food and materials production, in conjunction with man-made inputs such as labour and capital.

Fitzroy agriculture is predominantly based on livestock. It is the main hub for meat production throughout the entire GBR Region. Cattle meat production in 2014-15 was an estimated $1,285 million, which is 54% of the total value of cattle meat production within the GBR Catchment Area. Other agricultural commodities make up a smaller share of production value in Fitzroy, with the most significant of these being broadacre crops less sugar and cotton, with production of $236 million in 2014-15.

Agriculture can also place pressure on the Reef via its contribution to runoff. As such, economic activities such as grazing, sugarcane growing and horticulture are key components of the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan which aims to reduce pollutant runoff. For example, note that Fitzroy had the highest amounts of total suspended solids (fine sediment) and tebuthiuron runoff in the GBR Region in 2014-15. Tebuthiuron is a toxic herbicide commonly used to control weeds in the grazing industry. The amount of tebuthiuron load runoff in Fitzroy peaked in 2010-11. The Fitzroy region also reported the highest levels of the pesticide atrazine for the majority of the reference period.

The peak rainfall year and flooding event of 2010-11 does not appear to have increased production of meat cattle and broadacre crops in 2010-11, relative to other years during the period. Rather, production appeared to increase more noticeably the following year (2011-12). This suggests that the relationship between agricultural production and runoff impacts on marine condition may be related in timing to peak rainfall events, rather than to production peaks.

Fisheries production in the Fitzroy NRM region marine extension was 1,474 tonnes in 2015-16. Fitzroy exhibits the same post-2004 decline in fisheries catch as the GBR Marine Park as a whole, where catch in 2006-07 was just 59% of the catch in 2003-04. A change in zoning, licence buyouts, and quota implementations in 2003 and 2004 had a direct impact on fishing production and value in the Fitzroy region as it did in the rest of the GBR Marine Park. Other drivers of reduced fishing activity in the GBR Region as a whole since 1999 have included; changes to management arrangements in the Trawl and Reef Line fisheries; implementation of net-free areas; the high value of the Australian dollar reducing export profits; higher fuel prices; cheap imported seafood competing with local product; the higher salaries in Mining industry for mechanically skilled staff; and an ageing workforce with fewer new fishers entering commercial fishing than older fishers retiring.

However, in addition to this large and observable regulatory step-change, fisheries production in 2015-16 was still substantially lower than in 2009-10 or earlier years. This may reflect either productivity decline or continued regulatory tightening, as the number of licenses with access to the Fitzroy NRM region marine extension also continued to decline, and the tonnage caught per licence also declined.

For more detail on fisheries, please see the Fishing and Aquaculture section of this publication.

The most significant employers in the Fitzroy NRM region include the Mining, Construction, Retail Trade and Manufacturing industries. The industry with the highest employee earnings in 2011-12 was Mining, which was 17% of all employee payments and accounted for about 8.4% of all jobs. Many of these jobs were held in the short term or concurrently with other jobs.

Data on employment by industry in this chapter is sourced from the experimental Employee Earnings and Jobs dataset discussed in the Information Paper: Construction of Experimental Statistics on Employee Earnings and Jobs from Administrative Data, Australia, 2011-12 (cat. no. 6311.0), published by the ABS in 2015. This dataset was used to produce estimates covering numbers of jobs, earnings totals and multiple job holders. Further data will become available with the October 2017 release of 2016 Census data, which will contain a range of employment statistics, including industry and occupation dimensions.

Although a major land user, the agriculture industry in the Fitzroy NRM region appears not to be one of the most significant industries for employment. In 2011-12, gross agricultural production of at least $1.1 billion led to gross payments to employees in Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of about $71 million. Note that other income accruing to workers (for example, cash in hand) and income accruing to farm owners will not have been reported on Pay-as-you-go tax forms and is therefore outside the scope of these estimates.

A significant part of the agricultural supply chain is the Food Product Manufacturing industry within the Manufacturing industry. In the case of the Fitzroy, with agricultural activity being mostly cattle grazing, this means many workers will be employed within Meat and Meat Product Manufacturing, receiving employment income that is also related to beef production.

From available data we cannot identify, on an industry basis, the precise share of the $667 million in gross payments to Manufacturing employees which was earned by workers in the Meat and Meat Products Manufacturing industry. However, at a minimum, an analysis of occupation-based Personal Income Tax data can identify workers with occupations that are very likely to be employed in this industry. This data shows that $52 million was paid to employees with occupations such as 'Meat Boners and Slicers, and Slaughterers' and to 'Meat, Poultry and Seafood Process Workers'.

Please note that there is a difference between industry-based information about employees and occupation-based information. For more information on employment by industry and by occupation, refer to the Employment Profile section of the publication and to the Explanatory Notes.

Tourism to the GBR Region as a whole cannot be fully attributed to the attractions of terrestrial and marine ecosystems because tourists also visit for other reasons. However, ecosystem services are nonetheless an input to tourism in the region and likely to be the reason for a significant share of visits. To the extent that terrestrial ecosystems and the Reef are an input to tourism, degradation of these ecosystems will likely reduce the level of tourism activity. This means that economic activities which degrade land and marine ecosystem condition would be competing directly with tourism for "use" of the same ecosystems.

For more discussion of methods of estimating the input of ecosystems and other tourist attractions to total tourism activity, please see the Tourism section of the publication.