Freshwater Protected Area Resourcbook

A4.6 South Australia:

A4.6.1 Strategies for protecting freshwater biodiversity

The State Water Plan 2000 foreshadowed the development of the Wetlands Strategy for South Australia, which was released for discussion as a draft in 2002, and published in final form in March 2003. Overall, SA has lost about 70% of pre-European wetlands, and most of the remaining wetlands are substantially impacted by human activities. While a central aim of the strategy is to halt and reverse this decline, the strategy stops short of providing clear endorsement for the “no net loss” or “net gain” concepts within State and municipal planning frameworks.
The Strategy does not provide a definition of the term “wetlands”. It does, however, refer to definitions in Appendix 2, including the Ramsar definition as well as that used by the SA Water Resources Act and the State Water Plan 2000. By implication, this provides an opportunity to interpret the strategy in various ways, including an expansion of the scope of the document past the more conventional exclusion of rivers and streams.
According to the forward by minister John Hill, the strategy "demonstrates the South Australian commitment to bring together wetland and groundwater and surface water management at state, regional and local levels. Cornerstones of the strategy (p.11) include adaptive and integrated catchment management, an environmental duty of care, and the precautionary principle.
The Strategy does provide a mandate for the development of both a comprehensive wetland inventory (p.16) and reserves protecting comprehensive, adequate and representative examples of wetland types (p.22):

recognised and protected

Objective 5. To identify those wetlands which are important at the regional, state, national and international levels, and ensure appropriate recognition, management and protection of these sites.
Actions:
5.1 Establish a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of protected areas to contribute to the conservation of South Australia’s native biodiversity associated with wetlands.
5.2 Ensure that key wetland sites are identified in the State Wetlands Databank (see Action 6.1) defining their importance at the regional, state, national and international levels. Collate monitoring, survey, and management information for wetlands across the state and link these data to information from associated water resources that wetlands rely upon.
The use of the term “important” within the strategy rests partly on the Ramsar ‘importance’ criteria (see Appendix 7 below) of which criterion 1 underlines the value of representative sites:
Criterion 1: A wetland should be considered internationally important if it contains a representative, rare or unique example of a natural or near-natural wetland type found within the appropriate biogeographic region.
National Parks and Wildlife SA has a policy document titled "A Comprehensive, Adequate and Representative Reserve System Strategy for South Australia" 1997. This paper was presented to the Community Forums on the NRS at Perth in 1998 and in Adelaide in 1999. While not officially published, it guides the further development of the reserve system in South Australia. Two ecosystems / habitats have been identified for priority acquisition in South Australia: grassy ecosystems and wetlands³⁸⁴.
South Australian government applications for NRS NHT funds have emphasised wetland habitat since 1998. At least within the IBRA framework, SA’s representative reserves program has been expanding wetland reserves, and these reserves have representative values in the wider bioregional sense. Important recent acquisitions of land with wetland values include Mount Remarkable National Park, Caroona Creek, Carpenter Rocks and Lake St Clair³⁸⁵. It is important to note that South Australia's terrestrial representative reserve program targets wetlands as a priority in land acquisitions.
The development of a Biodiversity Strategy has been considered, but at this stage focus is on developing Regional Biodiversity Management Plans. One regional biodiversity plan has been published, and another four are in draft form, and will appear during 2001. These plans contain statements on threatening processes, and identify actions needed to ameliorate these threats. It seems more likely that the 'representative freshwater reserve' concept will get exposure in these regional plans, by way of recommendations, rather than in the politically more sensitive State strategies.
South Australia has a wetlands inventory program, where inventories are being developed region by region with the intention of achieving full State coverage; this program is being developed within a limited budget. There are no plans at present to establish a comprehensive inventory of freshwater ecosystems, including both flowing and still waters. The State is however, progressing the development of a broad-scale inventory of terrestrial ecosystems, within the IBRA framework, and this may ultimately be extended to cover freshwater ecosystems, particularly given the use of the Ramsar definition of wetlands within the State wetlands strategy.
The State has no threatened species legislation. Prior to the publication of the wetlands strategy, there were no requirements for local government, within the State's landuse planning framework, to take biodiversity or wetlands inventories into account when considering development proposals or changes to landuse zoning³⁸⁶. This has changed under Objective 5 of the strategy (p.23):
Actions:

5.4 Ensure that all relevant local government and state agencies, catchment water management boards and similar bodies are made aware of those wetlands recognised as being of regional, state, national or international importance and their respective management and ‘duty of care’ * responsibilities for each site.

5.5 Ensure wetlands of regional, state, national or international importance are identified in Planning Strategy and Development Plans. Such areas should be supported by appropriate strategies and objectives/principles of development control and included within a Conservation Zone. Surrounding zones should include provisions to minimise threats on such areas (eg minimising introduction of pest species, land division and fire management).
In the extreme south-east of the State, two small freshwater sites of national significance, Ewens Ponds and Piccaninnie Ponds, appear to have suffered a massive reduction in the groundwater flows which feed them³⁸⁷. Nevertheless, the SA Government is still encouraging further exploitation of the surrounding aquifers³⁸⁸. It is not apparent that the precautionary principle is being applied to the protection of these important sites.

A4.6.2 South Australia's water management framework

South Australia has relatively modern water legislation: the Water Resources Act 1997. The primary focus of the Act is the management of water quantities and flows, although it recognises the need to manage water quality, and seeks to protect water-dependent ecosystems and their biodiversity.
The Act establishes hierarchical tiers of responsible authorities and planning instruments. The authorities are: the Minister for Water Resources, the Water Resources Council, Catchment Water Management Boards (currently six), and Water Resources Planning Committees. The planning instruments are: the Water Resources Act, the State Water Plan, Catchment Water Management Plans, and Water Allocation Plans. In addition, local government may establish controls through the preparation of a Local Water Management Plan.
These authorities and instruments must seek to advance the objectives of the Act, which include the protection of water dependent ecosystems and their biodiversity (WRA s.6(a)ii).
A commitment to establish a system of representative freshwater reserves, in my view, is essential to protect water-dependent ecosystems and their biodiversity. However, the current State Water Plan, recently revised³⁸⁹, does not contain this commitment, nor does it refer to Principle 8 in its brief discussion of the national biodiversity strategy.
The scope of the Water Resources Act covers both surface and groundwaters. Common law rights to water are removed, and replaced by wide riparian and landholder rights, which in turn can be constrained by the provisions of the planning instruments.
Section 17 of the Act places a duty on landholders whose land includes a watercourse or lake to take reasonable measures to prevent damage "to the ecosystems that depend on the watercourse or lake". Perhaps by oversight, this section does not place a similar duty on landholders to protect aquifer-dependent ecosystems.
Section 92 of the Act specifies the scope of a Water Management Plan. The Plan must include information on the health of the ecosystems that depend on water, and must assess the need for water of those ecosystems.
Catchment Water Management Boards have commissioned reports by consultants to fulfil these requirements. Surprisingly, the most recent report by the Onkaparinga Catchment Water Management Board excludes consideration of the water needs of fish, aquatic invertebrates, and aquatic flora, while considering the needs of terrestrial flora, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and some macro-invertebrates³⁹⁰. This, in my mind, raises some questions about the way the Act is being implemented.
It is also noteworthy that, in spite of the clear commitments in the Act to the protection of water-dependent ecosystems, the five goals of the Onkaparinga Board do not mention the protection of "ecosystems" or "biodiversity", referring only to the need for rehabilitation and management of watercourses.
On the matter of harvesting surface water flows outside watercourses, the SA Act provides for the minister to declare an area a "surface water prescribed area" where harvesting of surface flows requires a licence.