Artesian springs that are beginning to emerge in a supergroup north of Barcaldine is "pretty exciting" news for Queensland's natural resource and land managers.
Speaking at a recent field day, Desert Channels Queensland senior project officer Natalie Pearce said the springs were starting to push their way to the surface thanks to Great Artesian Basin bore capping and piping programs.
The springs, existing and emerging, range in size from nearly one kilometre across to the size of a footprint.
"This hasn't happened for a million years - it's an incredibly unique thing for the Great Artesian Basin," DCQ operations manager Simon Wiggins said. "It's thanks to you and all the work you've done."
According to a Great Artesian Basin Sustainability Initiative briefing paper in 2018, at the conclusion of a number of phases of funding, 397 bores had been capped and 16,140km of piping had been installed in Queensland, saving an estimated 135,420ML a year.
Including NSW and South Australia, some 253,211ML of water a year is no longer flowing freely down drains and 759 bores are controlled.
This has meant that some very unique ecosystems have re-emerged, some of which are located around Barcaldine, which DCQ and the landholders involved are keen to preserve.
"If the springs develop healthily they may provide habitats for endemic flora and fauna species as they are very unique environments," Ms Pearce said.
Because it's known they take a long time, possibly decades, to grow that healthy balance of species, DCQ has benefited from the state government's Natural Resources Investment Program to set them up well.
"The emerging springs haven't stabilised yet - we've collected a lot of baseline data and done a whole bunch of threat reduction activities," Ms Pearce said.
Threats include rubber vine, feral pigs and livestock pugging.
"It's a complicated area to work in but drones are really useful in these areas where vegetation density makes it hard to identify where springs are emerging," Ms Pearce said. "It's important to identify them as soon as we can, to catch them before any negative impacts happen and cause lasting damage."
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They've designed tepee-like structures that sit over the top of the springs to prevent stock access, and the landholder has fenced an area off.
"That's good, because a lot of new ones are coming up," Ms Pearce said.
Mr Wiggins reminded the field day that there were still a number of bores to be capped and piped.
If that can be done, DCQ and landholders might be protecting a wide expanse of springs.
A Great Artesian Basin Coordinating Committee report from 2014 noted that it had developed and maintained a strong focus on extractive industry development in the GAB, recognising that its rapid development across the landscape could significantly impact GAB water and pressure resources, and undermine the hard-won gains of GABSI.