Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01713:body:0:p44
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2023L01713
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 193772–196793

are managed
As a threatened species, the water mouse is managed by Commonwealth and State or Territory Governments across its range to mitigate the impacts of coastal development through appropriate conditioning of approvals and ongoing regulation of development conditions.
Approximately 30 % of the Maroochy River floodplain is being restored from former cane fields to tidal wetlands (i.e. water mouse habitat) under the Blue Heart Sunshine Coast program. This program has the potential to restore and create new climate-resilient water mouse habitat as well as consolidate and conserve existing habitat at an important water mouse location that is under pressure from development (Webb 2021 pers. comm.).
Locations where threats to water mouse are explicitly acknowledged and actively managed include:
    * Gold Coast City Council reserves (McCoys Creek, Pimpama, Coomera) where threats to the water mouse (e.g. coastal development, European red fox, fire) have been investigated and are actively managed to reduce impacts as outlined in a plan of management (City of Gold Coast 2021; Adkins 2021 pers. comm.). The water mouse is one of five fauna species ranked by the Gold Coast City Council as the highest priority for management intervention (Adkins 2021 pers. comm.).
    * The Maroochy River in southeast Queensland, where European red fox monitoring and control is implemented by the Sunshine Coast Council in conjunction with the Kabi Kabi Traditional Owners to reduce predation pressure on the water mouse. The water mouse population is monitored along the Maroochy River to assess the response to fox management (SCC 2020).
    * Bustard Bay on the central Queensland coast, where private graziers have installed exclusion fencing to remove cattle long-term from water mouse habitat (Burnett Mary Regional Group NRM 2019).
    * Cape Palmerston National Park, Sandringham Bay Conservation Park, and Skull Knob Conservation Park on the central Queensland coast, where a European red fox management program was implemented at locations with recent water mouse detections (Pioneer Catchment Landcare 2020).
    * Gurruwiling/Arafura Swamp in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, where although the water mouse has not been detected since the year 2000, potential threats from feral herbivores and fires are actively managed long-term by the Arafura Swamp Rangers Aboriginal Corporation, and targeteed surveys are implemented to detect the water mouse (ASRAC 2017, 2018).
Additional locations where an active management plan is in place that acknowledges the known or potential occurrence of water mouse and indirectly considers impacts to this species in a larger framework of broader landscape-level management include:
    * Naree Budjong Djara on Minjerribah/North Stradbroke Island in south-east Queensland (QYAC QPWS 2020).
    * Sarina Beach near Mackay on the central Queensland coast (MRC 2022).
    * Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory (Woinarski & Winderlich 2014; Director of National