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Homepage Welcome pic The Mitchell River catchment in Tropical North Queensland, Australia, spans 72,000 square kilometres (the size of Tasmania) across the base of Cape York Peninsula. It incorporates five major river systems: the Mitchell, Alice, Palmer, Walsh and Lynd, and involves four local governments; namely Tablelands Regional (formerly Mareeba), Cook, Carpentaria and Kowanyama Communities Local Government Area. The Mitchell River Watershed Management Group Inc (MRWMG) arose out of a conference on watershed management held at Kowanyama in 1990. The catalyst for this conference was the concern for the river’s health felt by the Traditional Owners when they first started flying to Cairns and saw the catchment from the air. The MRWMG, has grown into an independent, not-for-profit organisation working in partnership with local communities and stakeholders to:
  • create a balanced approach to the use of the catchments resources; and
  • achieve sustainable and integrated management of the Mitchell River catchment area.

Read more about us, our projects, news and issues, and about the catchment in the relevant pages of this web site. There are also pages dedicated to education and awareness activities for kids, a publications area containing a collection of internal and external reports and other documents, a calendar of events, and details of how you can become involved. The Mitchell River Group is also an endorsed tax deductible gift recipient and we greatly appreciate donations.


Donations welcomed

The Mitchell River Group is an endorsed tax deductible gift recipient and all donations over AU$2.00 are 100% tax deductible. We greatly appreciate donations to help continue and expand the projects and assistance we provide to stakeholders in the Mitchell River catchment.

If this is your first visit to our site, please take some time to view our Current Projects page to gain insight on some of the community and environmental projects we are involved in. The About Us and About The Catchment pages tell the Mitchell River Group story and outline the significant features of the Mitchell River system and catchment area.

To Make a Donation...
Click here to access our donation page. It offers a secure payment facility linked to the Westpac Bank that allows credit card transactions and provides a Tax Invoice receipt upon payment. All donations over AU$2.00 are tax deductible.


News

New Workshops and Newsletters
See the News and Issues Page for information on recent newsletters, upcoming conferences and workshops including:
- Workshops on Regenerative Agriculture (low input sustainable)
- Queensland Landcare Conference 15 - 17 September2010 at Caloundra, Sunshine Coast.
- 13th International Riversymposium 11-14 October 2010, Peerth, WA

Regenerative Agriculture Newsletter


Wildlife queensland launches campaign to ban opera house traps.

Wildlife Queensland is currently running a campaign to ban opera house traps and other enclosed yabby traps in public waters of Queensland due to the impact they have on wildlife such as platypus, turtles and water birds. While legal in Queensland these traps have been banned in all public waters of Tasmania, Victoria the ACT and east of the Newell Highway in New South Wales.

For more information click here.


Walsh River Catchment Management Plan - Public Consultation
Members of the community took part in two workshops at the Dimbulah Town Hall on Tuesday 27th April. The purpose of the workshops was to identify management issues of concern for the public. These issues would then be an important element in the development of an updated Walsh River Sub-Catchment plan. The workshops identified a wide range of concerns which will be incorporated into a draft sub-catchment plan for wider circulation.

People who couldn’t get to the workshop can still have input to the plan by phoning the Mitchell River Group on 40533471 or emailing: bill@mitchell-river.com.au


Celebrating the Kowanyama Native Title Determination on 22 October and Errk Oykangand National Park handover on 23 October 2009

The Kowanyama community was celebrating a historic native title determination, their first ever, when their native title rights were recognised over about 2,731sq km of land and waters . This is Part A of a much larger claim over a total area of 19,800sq km and includes the Kowanyama community and a coastal strip approximately 160 kms long from the Coleman River to the Staaten River. Click here for some images of the community celebrations.

The celebrations continued on 23 October 2009 when Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones visited Kowanyama to hand back ownership of the 37,000-hectare Mitchell-Alice Rivers National Park to the region's Traditional Owners, the Kunjen and Oykangand People.

"This is the first existing national park to be returned to Traditional Owners," Ms Jones said.

The former Mitchell Alice Rivers National Park, 30 kilometres north east of Kowanyama, will be renamed the Errk Oykangand National Park.


Upper Mitchell River Catchment (Julatten-Mt Molloy Area) Wet Tropics Habitat Restoration - Small Grants Scheme 2010-2011

The Mitchell River Watershed Management Group has received further funding of $70,000 under the Queensland government Q2 Coasts and Country program to provide grants for even more habitat restoration work in the Wet Tropics area of the upper Mitchell River catchment.  This funding will enable the 2008-9 and 2009-10 habitat restoration grants schemes to be extended for another year.

The $150,000 of grants awarded to landowners in the Julatten-Mt Molloy corridor in 2008-10 assisted them in restoring the habitat values of their land.  Individual projects have replanted rainforest on cleared land (including land used for grazing and sugarcane), restored the vegetation in riparian (stream bank) areas and fenced off wetland areas to exclude feral pigs.  Grants awarded between December 2008 and February 2010 have, to date, resulted in the planting of at more than 20,000 trees on previously cleared land on 20 different properties.  The efforts of landowners have both increased the habitat value of these properties and improved the connectivity between the World Heritage Wet Tropics sections either side of this valley. You can view pictures of these projects at a Flickr site created for the project.

The 2010/11 round of grants will be awarded to landowners for projects that make a contribution to the biodiversity of the region through building habitat islands / stepping stones and removing barriers to movement of species between the protected areas of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area.  Projects supported may include the replanting of areas previously cleared for agriculture, restoration of wetland and riparian vegetation and feral pig/stock exclusion fencing to protect wetlands or riparian vegetation along a stream, which also enhances biodiversity in the streams of the project area. Applicants are expected to make significant in-kind contributions in time and resources, if not expenditure of additional funds.

This project is supported by the Mitchell River Watershed Management Group, through funding from the Queensland Government’s Q2 Coasts and Country.

Grant application forms, an information sheet on the grants scheme, useful maps of the project area and a progress report on the project are available below. Grant applications should be made on the application form and submitted by COB on Friday 8th October 2010:
Grant Application Form
Grant Scheme Information Sheet
Project Progress Report 2008-2010
EPA Map of Ecosystems
Map of Project Area


How You Can Help Stop The Spread of Tilapia in the Walsh and Mitchell River Catchments

Tilapia, a declared noxious fish originally from Africa, can wipe out native fish species and damage water quality if not detected and removed early enough (more information).  Tilapia can spread very quickly and established itself in 3,000 kilometres of waterways in the Burdekin catchment between 2004 and 2009. Tilapia is expected to gradually spread into every catchment along the tropical eastern coast of Queensland. It will become the dominant species in any catchment it colonises unless new occurences are detected and reported early enough to enable an effective eradication campaign. Keeping Tilapia out of the Mitchell catchment is critically important because of the limited physical separation between it and the Barron River catchment, which is already infested with Tilapia. Any establishment of Tilapia in the Mitchell would enable it to invade the Gulf catchments in the same way it has those draining into the Coral Sea.

Mitchell River Watershed Management Group is working with the Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research to provide the public with information about the control of this pest fish species. There has already been a successful Tilapia eradication campaign in Eureka Creek (draining into the Walsh River) in Oct. 2008 which eradicated the Tilapia and saw the early return of native species (more information).

Tilapia

If you catch a fish that looks like Tilapia, take a photo of it, or put it in a plastic bag, contact the Fisheries Pest Fish Hotline on 13 25 23 or 1800 017 116 (A/H) and pass the photo or fish on to someone who can confirm the identification and take action.

The only way to prevent more waterways becoming overwhelmed by Tilapia is for the public to actively report any sightings and enable an early and effective response wherever possible. More information

 


 

Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge (TRaCK) program



 
The Mitchell River forms part of the Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge program (TRaCK), a significant $30 million research program that is aimed at providing science and knowledge to help with the sustainable management of Australia¹s tropical rivers and coasts...
find out more...
Catchment Poster

MRWMG brochure and poster

We have produced a brochure and a matching A1-size poster that talks about who the Mitchell River Group is and celebrates various projects conducted by the Group in partnership with the communities involved. The brochure contains photos of people from throughout the catchment area to add a human face to all the hard work being done - and the poster contains even more photos than the brochure! Contact us for copies of these, or download them from our Publications page.


Quoll Survey on Cape York

The Northern Quoll, once known as the native cat, used to be common on Cape York Peninsula.  It apparently disappeared from the Peninsula in the 1980s and early 1990s. It is likely that the Cane Toad’s arrival was responsible for this; quolls die when they try to eat the poisonous toads.

The huge drop in numbers does not necessarily mean they are extinct on Cape York Peninsula.  Around Lakeland Downs and Cooktown, Northern Quolls have learnt to live with toads; though just how is not known.

northern quoll

Have you seen a quoll on Cape York?

Zoologists, John Winter and Scot Burnett have a Caring for our Country grant to look for surviving populations of the quoll on the Peninsula. 

Scott will be training community groups, starting with the Land and Sea Rangers at Lockhart River, in the use of infrared cameras to look for quolls.  John is seeking the help of Cape York residents to report any sightings of quolls. 

A quoll is a marsupial, about the size of a small domestic cat, has a brown body covered with cream spots, a black, slightly bushy tail, pointed snout and sharp teeth.  Quolls are predators and unfortunately tend to get a bad name because they love to eat chooks.

If you see any or know of places where quolls have been seen recently, please contact John - phone 4097 0048, PO Box 151 Ravenshoe 4888, or by email jw.winter@bigpond.com




How to Find Us...

Postal:
PO Box 646N, Cairns North, QLD 4870
Phone: 07 4053 3471 FAX: 07 4053 2942

We are still co-located with Cape York Sustainable Futures (formerly CYPDA) and the Cape York Fire Project, you can find us at:
4/275 McCormack Street, Manunda, Qld 4870, just around the corner from Brothers League Club in Anderson Street.

There is parking on the street at the front of the building, so if you are in town, drop in for a cuppa!

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