Barron Basin

The Barron Basin has an area of 2189 km² with Mareeba and Atherton as the main population centres.

The basin consists of 29% natural/minimal use lands, 31% grazing, 18% forestry, 8% other crops (including bananas), 3% sugarcane, 3% dairy, 5% urban and 4% other land uses.

The Barron River is the most modified river in the Wet Tropics region and is heavily regulated by water supply infrastructure.

The basin has a large upper catchment on the Tablelands and a smaller lower catchment north of Cairns where it discharges into Trinity Bay.

A major dam is situated at Tinaroo Falls at the northern end of Lake Tinaroo. The Barron River is a strong story place for Aboriginal custodians.

The Barron Basin grade has remained ‘moderate’ in 2023-24 whilst the score increased from 52 to 55.

Key results

• The extreme flooding in the Barron River that occurred in December following landfall of Severe Tropical Cyclone Jasper did not impact the annual grade for water quality which remained ‘good’, with the grade for filterable reactive phosphorus (FRP) improving from ‘moderate’ to ‘good’.
• The habitat and hydrology index declined from ‘moderate’ to ‘poor’ due to a decrease in score for the flow indicator.
• The flow indicator declined from ‘good’ the previous year to ‘moderate’ and this was due to higher-than-average rainfall events in July and December compared to years with more typical rainfall patterns.
• For the fish indicator, the Barron Basin improved in grade from ‘moderate’ to ‘good’ due to higher scores for the native fish and pest fish indicators.

The diagram below shows the detailed results for each indicator by year. Click on the timeslider to see data from previous years.