Natural Resource Management (NRM) Regions, 2014

## **Abstract** 

This dataset and its metadata statement were supplied to the Bioregional Assessment Programme by a third party and are presented here as originally supplied.



The Natural Resource Management (NRM) Regions dataset was prepared for the purpose of reporting on the Australian Government's previous natural resource management program, Caring for our Country (2008-2013). The dataset was designed to cover all Australian territory where Caring for our Country projects might have taken place including major islands; external territories; state and coastal waters; in addition to the 56 NRM regions. This version of the data is an update and formalisation of the 'interim 2010' dataset (which was an interim update of the NRM Regions 2009 dataset- publicly released in Feb 09). Whilst the boundaries of NRM Regions are defined by legislation in some states and territories this dataset should not be used to represent legal boundaries in any way. It is an administrative dataset developed for the purpose of reporting and public information. It should be noted that from time to time the states and/or territories may revise their regional boundaries in accordance with local needs and therefore alterations to either the attribution or boundaries of the data may occur in the future. 'Caring for our Country commenced on 1 July 2008 and closed on 30 June 2013. It integrated delivery of the Australian Government's previous natural resource management programs:  the Natural Heritage Trust, the National Landcare Program, the Environmental Stewardship Program and the Working on Country Indigenous land and sea ranger program. This is an administrative dataset developed for the purpose of reporting and public information. The dataset is not a legal boundary dataset and does not represent legal boundaries in any way. In total, this dataset represents 60 regions as set out below. They comprise 55 mainland regions administered by 54 NRM regional bodies (one region in QLD is jointly administered by two adjacent regional bodies) and seven islands (five administered by the Australian Government as external territories, and two administered by nearby mainland NRM regional bodies). Queensland 1. Border Rivers Maranoa-Balonne 2. Burdekin 3. Burnett Mary 4. Cape York 5. Condamine 6. Desert Channels 7. Fitzroy 8. Mackay Whitsunday 9. Northern Gulf 10. South East Queensland 11. South West Queensland 12. Southern Gulf 13. Torres Strait 14. Wet Tropics 15. Cooperative Management Area (administered jointly by Cape York and Northern Gulf) NSW 1. Central Tablelands 2. Central West 3. Greater Sydney 4. Hunter 5. Murray 6. North Coast (Including Lord Howe Island) 7. North West 8. Northern Tablelands 9. Riverina 10. South East 11. Western ACT 1. ACT Victoria 1. Corangamite 2. East Gippsland 3. Glenelg Hopkins 4. Goulburn Broken 5. Mallee 6. North Central 7. North East 8. Port Phillip and Western Port 9. West Gippsland 10. Wimmera TAS 1. North 2. North West 3. South 4. Macquarie Islands (administered by NRM South) South Australia 1. Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges 2. Alinytjara Wilurara 3. Eyre Peninsula 4. Kangaroo Island 5. Northern and Yorke 6. South Australian Arid Lands 7. South Australian Murray Darling Basin 8. South East WA 1. Avon 2. Northern Agricultural 3. Perth 4. Rangelands 5. South Coast 6. South West Northern Territory 7. Northern Territory External Territories (administered by the Australian Government) 1. Ashmore and Cartier Islands 2. Christmas Island 3. Cocos Keeling Islands 4. Heard and McDonald Islands 5. Norfolk Island

## **Dataset History** 

2006 Base Layer

The base layer for this dataset is the Natural Resource Management (NRM) Region Boundaries (formerly known as Natural Heritage Trust II (NHT2) Region Boundaries (2006)). This base layer has been perdiodically reviewed and built on to develop subsequent datasets. 

The original 2006 base layer included an offshore component for regions in SA, TAS and QLD. Offshore components for the other States and the Northern Territories were created using Geoscience Australia's AMB 2006 coastal waters data. Mainland region boundaries were checked with all state and territory agencies resulting in changes to the internal mainland boundaries for QLD and WA. The amended boundaries were sourced from the relevant agency from these States.



Geoscience Australia's Geodata Coast 100K 2004 dataset was used for mainland state/territory borders. The AMB 2006 data was used to define the offshore boundaries between the States and the Northern Territory. Offshore boundaries between NRM Regions within a State were produced by extending region boundaries at 90 degrees to the state 100k coastline unless otherwise requested by state or territory agencies. 



2009 version 

This version included updates to: the internal boundaries within WA and Qld; the seaward extent of coastal regions, which were extended to the 3 Nm coastal waters limit for all States and the Northern Territory; the inclusion of more offshore islands (and coastal waters); and the addition of external territories and their 12 Nm territories sea.

The coastline has been removed from the data in line with the decision to extend all coastal NRM Regions to the outer limit of the adjacent coastal waters. It should be noted that the removal of the coastline means that islands lying within the outer limit of the Coastal Waters adjacent to the mainland are no longer depicted as separate features in the data. For example the many islands in Shark Bay WA are not displayed as separate entities in this dataset as they fall within the expanded (marine) extent of the Rangelands NRM Region in the new dataset. Users intending to create sub-continental scale maps to communicate locations of NRM regions boundaries are recommended to use additional layers containing coasts and near shore islands (as well as state/territory borders and major towns if required). 



Not all coastal waters for the States and/or the Northern Territory have been included in the data. The primary consideration was whether land based activities might affect the adjacent waters. For the 2009 and subsequent datasets, coastal waters adjacent to the mainland and islands contained in the Geodata Coast 100K dataset are included. Significant islands include Macquarie Island (Tas) and Lord Howe Island (NSW).



Australia's External Territories (Heard and McDonald Islands, Cocos Keeling Islands, Christmas Island, Ashmore and Cartier Islands, and Norfolk Islands) have also been included in the 2009 and subsequent versions. The reporting region for these islands is the area within the outer limit of the 12 Nm Territorial Sea adjacent to each of these External Territories as sourced from the AMB 2006 data.



Specific issues relating to the development of the 2009 version for each State are described below:



WA- Data supplied from different WA regions contained overlaps around the Perth NRM. The Perth NRM confirmed that the NRM bodies work across neighbouring regions. As these boundaries remain ambiguous (and are not defined in any legislation) the Australian Government Land and Coasts settled on the boundaries in this dataset for the purposes of reporting.



NSW - Jervis Bay was added to the Southern Rivers NRM region after consultation with the Australian Government Land and Coasts NSW Team. Lord Howe Island was added to the NSW dataset as a part of the Northern Rivers NRM Region. The NSW Catchment Management Authority (CMA) Hawkesbury-Nepean, provided the marine NRM divisions between theirs and Central-Rivers, identifying that their northern regional boundary bisects Lion Island.



VIC - The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) provided a state NRM dataset for this update. Their boundaries matched the pre-existing NRM Region Boundaries dataset, except for one small area between East and West Gippsland. Victoria agreed to use the pre-existing NRM boundaries in this area. 



The addition of the 3Nm coastal waters component for Victoria presented a challenge in defining the offshore boundaries between Port Phillip and Westernport and the neighbouring NRM Regions of Corangamite and West Gippsland. The islands on the western shore of Port Phillip Bay in the vicinity of Queenscliff (Swan Island and Duck Island) and Swan Bay have been included in the Corangamite NRM region. From north to south the border between the Corangamite NRM region and Port Phillip and Westernport Bay NRM region is a line drawn from the eastern arm of Edwards Point to Swan Point, along the eastern shore of Swan Island and between the southern extremity of Swan Island to the eastern extremity of Point Queenscliff. The offshore boundary between these regions is a line drawn directly south from Point Lonsdale to the outer limit of coastal waters. Finally, the offshore boundary between Port Phillip and Westernport Bay and West Gippsland is a line drawn directly south from the town of San Remo to the outer limit of coastal waters.



Tas - The area of Coastal Waters adjacent to the Hogan Group of islands in Bass Straight is divided between Victoria and Tasmania. For the purpose of this dataset the entire area has been allocated to the North NRM region of Tasmania.



2010 Version

The major changes to the data for this dataset are that new NRM region boundaries for South Australia which came into effect on 1 July 2009 have been incorporated into the data; and, the data structure (attributes) have been modified. Other more minor changes include: all offshore boundaries between States and/or the Northern Territory were reviewed to be consistent with the agreed coastal waters boundaries as depicted in Geoscience Australia's AMB 2006 data; the area of coastal waters adjacent to the Cooperative Management Area in Queensland has been included in that region; and, the external territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands has been added to the dataset.



2012 Version

This dataset incorporates changes to the NSW NRM regions that came into effect on 12th October 2012 (NSW Catchment Management Authorities Amendment Order 2012). Major changes are: merger of Sydney Metropolitan NRM region into the Hawkesbury Nepean NRM region; merger of Lower Murray Darling NRM region into the Murray NRM region; changes of the boundary of Western NRM region; and changes of the boundary of the Central West NRM region. 



2014 Version

This 2014 version marks the change in NSW from Catchment Management Authorities (CMA) to Local Land Service areas which will now be used for NRM regions in NSW. Local Land service areas came into effect in NSW on 1 January 2014. A couple of gaps between Cape York and Torres Strait NRMs have been removed. Known discrepancies with published boundaries for several NRM regional bodies in WA (as per the 2009 version) remain in this dataset.  Further detail is in the data quality report section below.

## **Dataset Citation** 

Department of the Environment (2014) Natural Resource Management (NRM) Regions, 2014. Bioregional Assessment Source Dataset. Viewed 27 November 2017, http://data.bioregionalassessments.gov.au/dataset/e968a001-a307-437f-8081-6dacd76d4031.

Tags: Australia, Cooper subregion, LAND-Use, boundaries
Organization: Bioregional Assessment Program