Academic literature on the topic 'Fitzroy River (Qld.)'

En 1984 se instalaron cuatro ensayos de procedencias de Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh en la zona central de Chile (32º a 34º lat S), donde la precipitación media anual varía entre 300 y 700 mm. La semilla, obtenida de CSIRO-Australia, correspondía a 14 procedencias, entre las cuales se incluían las más sobresalientes del clima tropical, Katherine, N.T. y Pedford, QLD, del clima mediterráneo, Lake Albacutya, Vic., y del clima árido, Nueva Gales del Sur. A los dos años, en las cuatro localidades ensayadas, la procedencia de mayor plasticidad en términos de supervivencia, crecimiento, forma y productividad fue Lake Albacutya, Vic.(10666). En el mejor sitio su altura promedio a esa misma edad fue de 2,13 m con un crecimiento medio anual en altura de 1,12 m. Las procedencias de menor crecimiento en todos los lugares de ensayo fueron: Agnew, W.A.(9856); NW Dodnadatta, S.A.(12828); N. de Quilpio, QLD (13264) y Fitzroy River Crossiana, W.A.(13250)

Land use practices over the last 200 years have dramatically altered the distribution and amount of riparian vegetation throughout many catchments in Australia. This has lead to a number of negative impacts including a decrease in water quality, an increase in sediment transport and a decrease in the quality of terrestrial and aquatic habitats. The task of restoring the functions of riparian zones is an enormous one and requires spatial and temporal prioritisation. An analysis of the existing and historical functions of riparian zones and their spatial distribution is a major aid to this process and will enable efficient use of remediation resources. The approach developed in this thesis combines remote sensing, field measurement and terrain analysis to describe the distribution of five riparian zone functions: sediment trapping, bank stabilization, denitrification, stream shading and large woody debris production throughout a large semi-arid catchment in central Queensland.

The seasonal periodicity of hydrology, physical and chemical water quality parameters and phytoplanktonic assemblages was studied at two sites in a large tropical Australian riverine impoundment. This study, the first in the lower Fitzroy River at Rockhampton, occurred between August 1990 and November 1993. It covered extremes in riverine flow conditions including major flooding and drought.

The annual flow regime was characterized by major flows in the "wet" season (summer and autumn) and greatly reduced or no flow in the "dry" season of winter, spring and sometimes early summer. Consequently, the thermal regime at both of the study sites was divided into two phases. The first was a phase of water column heating in the late winter to early summer. Features of this heating phase were long term stratification with progressive epilimnetic deepening, high pH, regular occurrence of epilimnetic oxygen supersaturation and decreased or undetectable levels of oxidized nitrogen in the surface layer. Hypolimnetic anoxia was recorded late in this phase. The second, between substantial wet season inflows and late winter was characterized by nutrient rich inflows and water column cooling and mixing.

Distinct interannual differences occurred in the volume, source and timing of inflows and subsequent water chemistry. In 1991, conductivity, water clarity, filterable reactive phosphorus (FRP) and pH increased markedly following major flooding from northern tributaries, while oxidized nitrogen decreased. This was in marked contrast to the drier years of 1992 and 1993 where turbidity and oxidized nitrogen were higher during the initial post-flood period and conductivity and FRP were lower. Extremes of mostly abiogenic turbidity (range 1.6 to 159 NTU) were a feature of the light climate. Ratios of euphotic depth/mixing depth below 0.3 occurred in early 1992 and 1993.

Steep gradients in the physical and chemical environment were paralleled by variations in the phytoplankton. Algal biomass (as chlorophyll a) at Site 1, midstream opposite the water intake for the city of Rockhampton, ranged from 1.5 to 56.6 ug L-1. The vertical water column distribution of chlorophyll was variable with assemblages normally dominated by phytoflagellates and various species of cyanoprokaryotes. There was also higher relative abundance of chlorophyll a (reflecting increasing dominance of cyanoprokaryotes) in the latter half of the year and at the lower end of light availability. The specific vertical water column positioning with respect to light and temperature is shown for assemblages dominated by the genera Anabaena, Aphanizomenon and Cylindrospermopsis.

The most striking aspect of the phytoplankton was the long term dominance of cyanoprokaryotes and the species richness (particularly that of cyanoprokaryotes) when compared with the dearth of information to date on other tropical rivers. Seasonal successions were varied. Regularly occurring assemblages were cyanoprokaryotes (Oscillatoriales), euglenophytes or non-flagellated chlorophytes during flows followed by flagellated chlorophytes and then cyanoprokaryotes (Nostocales) during the dry season. Genera present indicated highly eutrophic conditions. Hierarchical agglomerative clustering of phytoplankton data and comparison with a principal components analysis of corresponding environmental data were used to demonstrate the linkage between steep environmental gradients and variation in the phytoplankton assemblage. The specific environmental conditions associated with the success of various species were also analysed and presented. Using the above information, a two-part model was proposed which predicts the most likely genera of phytoplankton with respect to multidimensional environmental gradients. This model covers a wide gamut of conditions varying from highly variable lotic to lentic environments.

As Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii was considered a most important species in relation to the quality of the water supply for Rockhampton, the physical, chemical and biotic conditions prior to and during a bloom of this species are described. A number of possible grazers of C. raciborskii were identified with a view to future biomanipulation. One of these, the large ciliate, Paramecium cf. caudatum was found to be an effective grazer of toxic straight C. raciborskii in the laboratory.

This study is unique in that it analyses the impact of episodic events (eg. major flooding) on the subsequent phytoplankton in the lower Fitzroy River. The model relating phytoplankton to multidimensional environmental gradients provides great information for use in management, particularly in relation to the prediction of toxic algal blooms.

Australia and Northeast Iraq have scarce water resources which are vulnerable to climate change. Analyses of historical data have revealed that these two regions are experiencing climate change to a degree higher than generally reported elsewhere. To date the relationship between climate change and its effect on water resources of Australia and Northeast Iraq has been sparsely addressed in the published literature, and almost no attention has been paid to climate change-related water resources issues. In order to fill that gap, this research work first investigates if there has been a significant change in climate in these two regions, and this has been found to be true. The relationship between climate change and its impact on water resources is explored through the application of the widely used ‘white box’ model SWAT. The model depicts the availability of water resources, classified separately as blue and green waters, for short-term and distant futures for the two regions. Some of the findings are foreboding and warrant urgent attention of planners and decision makers for certain places where (in both regions) the results show that climate change will have major impacts on water resources. The Fitzroy River Basin will experience hotter and wetter weather, while the Iraqi Basin will see hotter and drier weather in the near and distant futures, near being up to 2046-2064 and distant being up to 2080-2100. The research makes some projections of future water resource distributions in the two regions based on climatic scenarios from some widely used General Circulation Model (GCM) ensembles. The research further investigates how the population is adapting to already changed climates and how it is expected to cope in the future when the shift in climate is expected to be much greater.

In history, the progress of a city's water supply often parallels the growth of the city, and in Rockhampton's case, also reflects a number of adversities that the local councillors had to overcome. This dual local and water history dissertation explores the history of Rockhampton's water supply. In doing so it engages with themes within local history such as politics, local government, adversity, resilience and identity. This history also reveals patterns of local power relations. These themes are set against the backdrop of broader Australian history in order to provide context.1 Rockhampton sits astride the large Fitzroy

River, but despite this fortune of geography, the c;ity has had a history of challenges in securing a safe and reliable water supply. The forethought of mayors and local government officers was an integral feature of directing Rockhampton away from using unhygienic lagoon water, to having possibly one of the safest and best water supply systems in Australia, and this can only be appreciated by understanding the history of this local area. The development of Rockhampton was a phenomenon unlike most towns in Queensland. The duffer's gold rush at Canoona, bringing in hundreds of people almost instantly,

prevented Rockhampton developing slowly like other towns, which depended mainly on agriculture. The challenge for the leading citizens in a new town that virtually grew

overnight was to source adequate drinking water for a town on the bank of a salty river.

Local history narratives like this rely on the stories of people in the area. This local history narrative encompasses some local political history, although Councillors were not politically aligned in the early days of Rockhampton. The significant water history events that are explored in this thesis include the following, and each represents progress in ideas and technology. The first resolution passed by the first Council in 1861, was to apply to the Queensland Colonial Government for permission to cart water from Yeppen Yeppen Lagoon, later known as Yeppen Lagoon as the town water supply. In 1875 a more sophisticated reservoir was built to supply water to approximately 1,400 houses with lagoon water and by the 1926, a pumping station and water treatment works were built at Yaamba and potable water was piped the thirty-five kilometres to Rockhampton. In 1970 a barrage was built across the Fitzroy River at the "Rocks" to prevent tidal salt water contaminating the fresh Fitzroy River water. Subsequently, a new pumping station and water treatment works were built within the city at Glenmore in 1971. The thesis argues that the people who progressed Rockhampton's water supply faced adversity in achieving a continuous articulated potable water supply for the city. The city is adjacent to a saltwater river, yet the incremental progress made encouraged large businesses and even adjacent towns to eventually flourish, as well as helped to green Rockhampton. Furthermore, this water history shows Rockhampton's distinctive identity when it obtained its iconic Council-owned Barrage.