Around 30,000 hectares of Northern and Yorke has permanent or occasional water bodies such as rivers and wetlands.
There are five main river catchments - the Light, the Broughton and the Wakefield in the Mid North, the Willochra further up, and the Gawler along our southern boundary.
Smaller streams flow north towards Lake Torrens, north-west towards Lake Frome, east towards the Murray Flats and west into Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent.
Southern Yorke Peninsula has saline wetlands, while freshwater wetlands are found mainly in the Mid North and southern Flinders Ranges.
Northern and Yorke has both shallow and deep groundwater aquifer systems throughout the region, and about 2400 hectares is covered by surface and groundwater storage in dams and tanks.
These resources have changed extensively since European settlement. Sedimentation, nutrients, chemicals, and changed flows have affected the fish, frogs, insects and vegetation in our streams, and further out the fish in our seas.
Dryland salinity occurs when large volumes of unused rainfall reach down to groundwater, which rises and brings salts to the surface.
In the light of these, Northern and Yorke NRM Board is dedicated to achieving sustainable water supplies and use, improving water quality and controlling salinity from groundwater.
We can support watercourse and wetland and salinity-based projects.
See pages 61 – 75 of Integrated NRM Plan.