AGY-5299 | Border Rivers-Gwydir Catchment Management Authority

Full description

Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) were established across the state in January 2004 under the Catchment Management Authorities Act 2003 as part of broad Natural Resources Management reforms. (1)

Each Catchment Management Authority board consisted of a chairperson and up to six board members, who together provided a range of experience, skills and knowledge in areas such as primary production, cultural heritage, biodiversity conservation, business administration and governance. Each Catchment Management Authority also had a general manager and a small team of professional staff. (2)

The functions of each Catchment Management Authority were:

to develop catchment action plans and to give effect to any such approved plans through annual implementation programs
to provide loans, grants, subsidies or other financial assistance for the purposes of the catchment activities it is authortised to fund
to enter contracts or do any work for the purposes of the catchment activities it is authorised to carry out
to assist landholders to further the objectives of its catchment action plan (including providing information about native vegetation)
to provide educational and training courses and materials in connection with Natural Resource Management, and
to exercise any other function relating to Natural Resource Management as it is prescribed by the regulations. (3)

Border Rivers-Gwydir Catchment Management Authority
The Border Rivers-Gwydir Catchment occupied an area of approximately 50,000 square kilometres. The principal rivers that drain the inland slopes of the eastern highlands are the Dumaresq, Severn and Macintyre with the Gwydir River in the south west of the Catchment.

The Border Rivers-Gwydir Catchment Management Authority serviced the entire Gwydir Catchment (approx 26,500km) and the NSW portion of the Border Rivers Catchment (approx 24,000km). Both of these catchments were located within the Murray-Darling Basin in North Western NSW. The catchments were bounded by the Queensland border in the north and west, the Great Dividing Range in the east and the Namoi Catchment in the south. (4)

In 2007 the Head Office of the Border Rivers-Gwydir CMA was located at Inverell. It also had offices at Armidale, Glenn Ines and Moree. (5)

The Border Rivers-Gwydir Catchment Management Authority was abolished on 1 January 2014 by the Local Land Services Act 2013 which replaced it with North West Local Land Services. (6)

Endnotes
1. Combined Catchment Management Authorities, Annual Report, 2003-2004, p.1; Catchment Authorities Act 2003 (Act No.104, 2003), s.6.
2. Catchment Management Authorites website http://www.cma.nsw.gov.au/index.html (cited 25 May 2007).
3. Ibid., p.3; Catchment Management Authorities Act 2003 (Act No.104, 2003), s.15.
4. Border Rivers-Gwydir Catchment Management Authority website http://www.brg.cma.nsw.gov.au/ourcatchment.htm (cited 25 May 2007).
5. Catchment Management Authorities website http://www.cma.nsw.gov.au/contact_cma.html (cited 25 May 2007).
6. Local Land Services Act 2013 (Act No.51, 2013) Schedule 6, cl.4 (1) (a).