The Inglis River is a river in

North West Tasmania North West Tasmania is one of the regions of Tasmania in Australia. The region comprises the whole of the north west, including the ''North West Coast'' and the northern reaches of the ''West Coast''. It is usually accepted as extending as fa ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, it extends approximately from the Campbell Ranges near Takone before discharging into

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The ...

at Wynyard. The Flowerdale River is the largest tributary system on the Inglis River and makes up approximately one-third of the Inglis-Flowerdale

catchment basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, th ...

Inglis-Flowerdale catchment area

While not tributaries of the main river system, Sisters Creek and Seabrook Creek are notable minor creeks which form part of the Inglis-Flowerdale catchment area. Annual rainfall ranges from about at the coast to greater than in the upper reaches of the catchment, some inland from Wynyard. Forestry plantations dominate the landscape in the western region of the catchment, with intensive agriculture land-use in the north and eastern regions. Because of the steep and confining nature of the topography around the Inglis and Flowerdale rivers, both have retained substantial native forests that tend to buffer the rivers from both land-use activities.

Environment and wildlife

A 2003 water assessment report determined that the upper Inglis and Flowerdale Rivers and their tributaries are in generally good ecological health, however the middle and lower reaches of the Inglis River have less healthy

macroinvertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum V ...

communities. The poorer health of these communities suggest that they have been impacted by

sedimentation Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to th ...

from upstream forestry operations,

gravel pit A gravel pit is an open-pit mine for the extraction of gravel. Gravel pits often lie in river valleys where the water table is high, so they may naturally fill with water to form ponds or lakes. Gravel pit lakes are typically nutrient rich and ...

s and poor stream-side agricultural land management practices. Measures to help mitigate further environment issues may include fencing off rivers to prevent

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

from accessing waterways and re-vegetation of river banks to prevent further erosion. '' Beddomeia capensis'' is an endangered

freshwater snail Freshwater snails are gastropod mollusks that live in fresh water. There are many different families. They are found throughout the world in various habitats, ranging from ephemeral pools to the largest lakes, and from small seeps and springs t ...

that had previously been surveyed at a tributary of Big Creek in 1989, but is now only known to occur on a few small streams upon

Table Cape Table Cape is an extinct volcano located near Wynyard, Tasmania, Wynyard on the North West Tasmania, North West of Tasmania, Australia, it is also the name of the locality which encompasses the geological feature. Table Cape is a more or less ci ...

. Other aquatic threatened species in the Inglis-Flowerdale catchment includes the endangered giant freshwater crayfish, and the

Australian grayling The Australian grayling (''Prototroctes maraena'') is a primarily freshwater fish found in coastal rivers in south-eastern mainland Australia and Tasmania. In past decades it has also been known as the cucumber mullet or cucumber herring, for i ...

Willow removal

During 1999 and 2000, large scale

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

infestation removal works were undertaken along the lower reaches of the Inglis River in the Flowerdale valley under the guidance of a

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

funding initiative. Poor remediation processes at the time, which involved removing the roots of the trees, has led to significant soil erosion and remains to be an issue for local agricultural landholders – more than a decade later.

Inglis-Flowerdale catchment area

Environment and wildlife

Willow removal

See also

References

Further reading