Assessing the economic benefits of a tourist access road: A case study in regional coastal Australia

Self-drive tourism opportunities are often advanced as a strategy for economic development in rural and regional areas. In many cases the tourism appeal of an area can be enhanced through the provision of flagship attractions, services and infrastructure such as roads and signage. However evaluation of potential investments requires an assessment of the benefits, which requires prediction of future use. In this paper the methodology to assess the impacts and values of investing in road infrastructure are outlined, together with a case study application to Queensland's Capricorn Coast. This tourism area is bypassed to the east of the main coastal highway and is accessible only through a regional highway city. The economic benefits of a northern access road to encourage tourism at the coast have been assessed. This study demonstrates how to conduct economic analyses before investing resources into new tourist access roads. © 2017 Economic Society of Australia, Queenslan

Conserving Central Queensland's koalas

"In February 2012 an expert workshop was convened to assist in developing a strategy for the conservation of the koala in central Queensland. The multi-disciplinary workshop assemblage included – from the academic research community: the Koala Research Centre of Central Queensland at CQUniversity; the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, and the Centre for Spatial Environmental Research at the University of Queensland; the Applied Road Ecology Group at Griffith University; from the captive koala research and captive management sector: San Diego Zoo Global, Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, Dreamworld and the Rockhampton Zoo; from the regulatory and conservation management sector in the Queensland Government: Koala Policy and Operations Branch, Sustainable Landscapes, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service; the Ecological Assessment Unit and the Planning Unit, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Environment and Resource Management; and the Department of Transport and Main Roads. ...The contributions to that workshop form the chapters in this book. From these contributions and the associated workshop sessions we have concluded that, in central Queensland at least, a proactive bioregional approach to conservation is required."--preface, pp. 1-2

Embryos of eastern rainbowfish Melanotaenia splendida splendida (Peters, 1866) tolerate fluctuating hypoxia

© CSIRO. Hypoxia can have profound sublethal effects on reproduction and embryonic development of some freshwater fish. In the present study, the effects of diel fluctuating hypoxia on embryo viability were investigated for the eastern rainbowfish Melanotaenia splendida splendida, a small-bodied species common in wetlands of tropical Queensland. After daily hypoxic exposure (minimum 5% saturation) from fertilisation until hatch, no effects were found on egg incubation time, egg and larval mortality, and viability and size of hatching larvae. Older life history stages of the species are vulnerable to this level of hypoxia. Embryos of phytolithophilic species are likely exposed to fluctuating dissolved oxygen saturations in their natural habitat, and hypoxia tolerance may be a requirement for fish species that spawn predominantly on submerged plant material

Reproduction and embryo viability of a range-limited tropical freshwater fish exposed to fluctuating hypoxia

Hypoxia can profoundly affect fish reproduction and larval development, but its effects on fish from tropical Australia are not well understood. In the present study, the effects of diel fluctuating hypoxia on reproduction and embryo viability were investigated for a range-limited tropical freshwater fish, namely the Utchee Creek rainbowfish (Melanotaenia utcheensis). The lethal level for adult rainbowfish after gradual oxygen depletion was ∼7% dissolved oxygen (DO) saturation. After 28 days, the reproductive success of adult fish exposed to fluctuating hypoxia treatments was measured by fecundity, gonad health, egg incubation time, egg and larval mortality, viability and size of hatching larvae. Reproduction was impaired in the lowest sublethal treatment (minimum 10% DO saturation each day). No ill effects of parental exposure to diel fluctuating hypoxia on embryos were identified, and minor differences in temperature between aquaria had a greater effect on embryos than parental hypoxia treatments. Similarly, no effects of embryonic exposure to diel fluctuating hypoxia were identified. Utchee Creek rainbowfish appear to be more hypoxia tolerant than temperate species, in keeping with their habitat in warm lowland streams, but they are still susceptible to the increasing frequency and intensity of hypoxia possible with increasing temperature and reduced flow as a result of climate change. © 2018 CSIRO

Use of aquatic plants to create fluctuating hypoxia in an experimental environment

In freshwater systems, dissolved oxygen (DO) saturation frequently fluctuates, falling at night and rising during the day in response to respiration and photosynthesis, respectively, of aquatic biota. Low DO (hypoxia) is a common cause of fish kills in freshwater systems around the world. Laboratory studies on responses of fish to fluctuating DO are currently limited, and require techniques that produce a realistic cycle of DO depletion and replacement. Artificial DO-depletion mechanisms frequently used for hypoxia studies may underestimate the field effects of hypoxia on fish because of the lack of the naturally occurring synergistic effect of lower pH, and seldom allow fish to employ behavioural adaptations to hypoxia, such as aquatic surface respiration. We demonstrate proof-of-principle for an alternative method of creating fluctuating hypoxia in an experimental environment, using the natural rhythms of photosynthesis and respiration of aquatic plants to create realistic conditions. A range of volumes of aquatic macrophytes were used alone and in combination with fish to lower DO saturation in sealed freshwater aquaria, and achieved DO saturations as low as 1.3%. This cost-effective method can be deployed over long periods with minimal effort in comparison to traditional methods of DO reduction

Sublethal effects of fluctuating hypoxia on juvenile tropical Australian freshwater fish

Hypoxia in freshwater ecosystems of the Australian wet tropics occurs naturally, but is increasing as a result of anthropogenic influences. Diel cycling of dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration (fluctuating hypoxia) is common in the region. Laboratory experiments sought to identify relationships between severity of fluctuating hypoxia and sublethal effects on ventilation, feeding and growth for juvenile barramundi (Lates calcarifer), eastern rainbowfish (Melanotaenia splendida splendida) and sooty grunter (Hephaestus fuliginosus). Fish continued to feed and grow under daily exposure to severe fluctuating hypoxia treatments for several weeks. Ventilation rates increased in a significant direct quadratic relationship with the severity of hypoxia treatments and increasing hypoxia caused ventilatory behaviour changes in all species. Barramundi and rainbowfish attempted aquatic surface respiration and were more tolerant of severe hypoxia than was sooty grunter; barramundi and rainbowfish are also more likely to experience hypoxia in the wild. There was a significant quadratic relationship between growth and minimum DO saturation for barramundi. Although all three species were tolerant of hypoxia, anthropogenic stressors on tropical Australian aquatic ecosystems may increase the frequency and severity of hypoxic conditions causing a concomitant increase in fish kill events

Agricultural use report card development: A case study in the Fitzroy Basin, Queensland

Agriculture is heavily reliant on readily available water of a suitable quality for stock consumption and irrigation of crops. While technical methods for assessing water quality are available, methods to summarise the results and communicate it to a broader audience are lacking. Here the development of an Agricultural Use Report Card in the Fitzroy Basin, Queensland, is outlined. This study summarises findings and includes a methodology developed and deployed to deliver these stock and crop water suitability assessments. We also discuss the index developed to underpin agricultural use, report card publication and communication, along with the online assessment architecture used to facilitate multi-tier result interrogation by end users. This study found surface waters of the Fitzroy were generally of good or very good quality for agricultural uses. Occasional exceedances of agricultural suitability thresholds for several indicators were identified, and we discuss the method used for exceedance identification and a novel style of exceedance reporting that provides a greater degree of transparency than traditional aquatic ecosystem report card approaches

Final report on the status of the social, cultural (sense of place) and economic components for the 2019 Gladstone Harbour Report Card

The Gladstone Harbour Report Card, first piloted in 2014, represents one of the early initiatives to incorporate social, cultural and economic indicators in an aquatic health report card. The report card has been associated with pioneering new methodologies and techniques in the assessment process such as the use of Bayesian Belief Networks to combine the different measures and indicators (Pascoe et al., 2016) and the application of nonmarket valuation techniques in the economic assessment (Windle et al., 2017). The Gladstone Harbour Report Card is produced annually and 2019 is the sixth consecutive year of reporting. The report card encapsulates environmental, social, cultural and economic objectives. The focus of this report is on the last three components

Mud crab indicators for the Gladstone Harbour Report Card: Project ISP015-2021

Giant mud crabs (Scylla serrata) are a recreationally and commercially important species in Gladstone Harbour, an iconic seafood item, and have cultural value to Indigenous Australians. The Gladstone Harbour Report Card mud crab indicator provides scores and grades for three metrics: abundance (catch per unit effort), prevalence of rust lesions, and sex ratio. The mud crab indicator has been monitored in seven Gladstone Harbour zones since 2017, and this report presents the results of the fifth year of sampling, 2021. Two field sampling events were conducted during 2021, one in February and one in June. Scores and grades were calculated using both 2021 data sets for the three metrics within each of the seven recommended long-term monitoring zones in Gladstone Harbour. The scores for each of the three measures were averaged across all zones first to give a harbour average for each measure, and then the average of the three harbour averages was calculated as a harbour-wide score and grade for the mud crab indicator

Mud Crab Indicators for the Gladstone Harbour Report Card: Project ISP015-2022

Giant mud crabs (Scylla serrata) are a recreationally and commercially important species in Gladstone Harbour, an iconic seafood item, and have cultural value to Indigenous Australians. The Gladstone Harbour Report Card mud crab indicator has been monitored in seven Gladstone Harbour zones since 2017, and this report presents the results of the sixth year of sampling, in 2022. The indicator scores and grades cover three metrics: abundance (catch per unit effort), prevalence of rust lesions, and sex ratio, in each zone and across the harbour. Two field sampling events were conducted in February and June 2022. Scores and grades were calculated using both of the 2022 data sets for the three metrics within each of the seven recommended long-term monitoring zones in Gladstone Harbour. The scores for each of the three measures were averaged across all zones first to give a harbour average for each measure, and then the average of the three harbour averages was calculated to provide a harbour-wide score and grade for the mud crab indicator.</p