GENERAL INFORMATION

Features: The Balfes Creek Catchment is located in Dalrymple Shire and forms part of the Upper Burdekin Catchment. The catchment is located approximately 25 km south-west of Charters Towers. The Upper Burdekin Catchment is one of the five focus catchments for the National Dryland Salinity Program. It was identified in some preliminary work by DPI (Queensland Department of Primary Industries) and CSIRO Land and Water as the area most at risk of developing dryland salinity in the shire.

Climate: Rainfall ~ 629mm annually, 80% of which occurs in the summer months (December-February), Average pan evaporation ~ 2150mm/yr.

Main Landuse: The catchment comprises 20 beef cattle enterprises and totals an area of 237,000ha. Total property area is 440,000ha. An underground gold, silver, lead and zinc mine is situated in the catchment.