Great Sandy Marine Park

Overview

 

 

 

 

The Great Sandy Marine Park is a State marine park, managed by Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS). The Great Sandy Marine Park was first established in 2006, amalgamating the two existing marine parks in the area – Woongarra and Hervey Bay Marine Parks – and adding additional areas of tidal land and waters between Baffle Creek and Double Island Point, to create the Great Sandy Marine Park.

The Great Sandy Marine Park covers approximately 6,200km² of tidal lands and waters stretching from Baffle Creek in the north to Double Island Point in the south. It is an area of exceptional conservation value, including Hervey Bay, Great Sandy Strait - a Ramsar Wetland of International Significance, Tin Can Inlet and the waters off the World Heritage-listed K'gari (Fraser Island) seaward to three nautical miles.

Great Sandy Marine Park protects natural and cultural values across a range of marine and coastal environments, including rivers, creeks, estuaries, rocky shores, fringing reefs, saltmarsh, mangroves, seagrass meadows and sandy beaches. These habitats provide important seasonal food sources, nesting and roosting sites, and stopovers for migratory species such as humpback whales, migratory shorebirds, manta rays and marine turtles. Resident species of dugong, Australian humpback dolphins, shorebirds, grey nurse sharks and a huge variety of fish, molluscs and crustaceans also depend on these resources. Eleven Fish Habitat Areas, declared under the Fisheries Act 1994 to protect habitat important for the State’s fisheries from the impacts of coastal development, are also present in the marine park and are managed by QPWS.

The marine park is used for a wide range of activities, from fishing and recreation to defence activities and scientific research. The Great Sandy Marine Park Zoning Plan provides the management detail for the protection of the natural, cultural and use values of the marine park and aims to balance its ecologically sustainable use. It is subordinate legislation under the Marine Parks Act 2004, the purpose of which is conservation of the marine environment. The zoning plan establishes and defines the location of a network of spatially defined zones which afford different levels of protection and a network of designated areas that protect specific values at particular locations, and specifies the associated zone and designated area entry and use provisions for each. The zoning plan is the primary tool used to manage the marine park, supported by public education programs, signs, permits, compliance programs, routine surveillance and scientific monitoring. Read more about the marine park’s management and zoning.

Catchment stories

Wetland observations

Show comparison charts

Wetland extents

Based on wetland mapping version 6.0

Disclaimer

Areas do not include marine or estuarine waters but do include estuarine wetland vegetation
(e.g. mangroves and tidal flats).

All statistics are approximate and generated based on data transformed to a customised Albers equal-area projection, thus allowing wetland extent change for different regions of Queensland to be comparable.

Areas may change over time as mapping approaches improve.

Totals may not match the sum of individually displayed figures due to the rounding of displayed figures.

Wetland extent changes

* Total 2019/pre-clear percentage excludes artificial and highly modified

Disclaimer

Areas do not include marine or estuarine waters but do include estuarine wetland vegetation
(e.g. mangroves and tidal flats).

All statistics are approximate and generated based on data transformed to a customised Albers equal-area projection, thus allowing wetland extent change for different regions of Queensland to be comparable.

Areas may change over time as mapping approaches improve.

Totals may not match the sum of individually displayed figures due to the rounding of displayed figures.

Wildlife