AGY-5302 | Hunter-Central Rivers 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. (2)

Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority
The Hunter-Central Rivers CMA managed 37 000 square kilometres of the east coast of NSW -- from Taree in the north, to Gosford and the coastal waterways of the Central Coast in the south, and from Newcastle in the east to the Merriwa Plateau and Great Dividing Range in the west. The region’s major waterways are the Manning, Karuah and Hunter rivers and the coastal waterways of Wallis Lake, Port Stephens, Lake Macquarie, Tuggerah Lakes and Brisbane Waters. (4)

In 2007 the Head Office of the Hunter-Central Rivers CMA was located at Paterson. It also had offices at Gosford, Musswellbrook and Taree. (5)

The Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority was abolished on 1 January 2014 by the Local Land Services Act 2013 which replaced it with Greater Sydney Local Land Services and Hunter Local Land Services. (6)

Endnotes
1. Combined Catchment Management Authorities Annual Report, 2003-2004, p.1.
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, s.15.
4. Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority website http://www.hcr.cma.nsw.gov.au/our_catchment.php3 (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).