Yapunyah Waterhole lies in the Mulga Lands bioregion of western Queensland. The waterhole is about two kilometres long and covers approximately 22 hectares when full. It is defined as a permanent waterhole in a region where permanent waterholes are extremely rare and therefore provide important refuges for aquatic plants and animals. These rare waterholes were also vital for Aboriginal people and provided both spiritual and physical nourishment.
The waterhole is on a cattle-grazing property where efforts are being made to preserve the biodiversity and associated cultural heritage. The property owners are working with the local natural resource management group, Desert Channels Queensland.
The Yapunyah Waterhole is a permanent waterhole in the Cooper Creek catchment and the Lake Eyre Basin. It lies in the Grey Range between Adavale and Yaraka in South West Queensland. The waterhole is fed by Nutting Creek, which starts at an elevation of 347 metres and drops around 85.5 metres over its 72 kilometre length before merging with Powell Creek. Powell Creek in turn flows through Hell Hole Gorge National Park to the south-west and eventually into the Barcoo River. The waterhole is surrounded by mulga Acacia aneura woodland. Rainfall averages 390 millimetres per year and is exceeded by evaporation of three to four metres per year.
A permanent waterhole in a semi-arid landscape
Permanent waterholes are extremely rare in the arid and semi-arid landscapes of the Lake Eyre Basin. These rare, often isolated waterholes are of vital importance as biological refugia and underpin the health and vitality of the aquatic animals. Permanent waterholes have been defined as those that have not gone dry since European settlement and are generally about four metres deep when they cease to flow. They mostly occur on main rivers and creeks where they receive regular inundation. Rivers in the Lake Eyre Basin exist mostly as a series of ephemeral, semi-permanent and permanent waterholes and flow only seasonally in response to summer monsoonal rainfall in the upper catchments.
Aquatic organisms which lack desiccation-resistant life-stages (i.e. cannot survive 'drying out'), are reliant on refuges during drought, as are wetland-dependent organisms which do not readily disperse, or which cannot move long distances between isolated habitats. Such animals include all fish, some macroinvertebrates, the Cooper Creek Turtle Emydura macquarii emmotti and water rat Hydromys chrysogaster.
These waterholes also provide vital habitat for land mammals, reptiles, frogs and woodland birds that need to live near permanent water and/or that favour trees with hollows.
Permanent waterholes also tend to have consistently higher species diversity than ephemeral and semi-permanent waterholes and provide consistency and stability in a highly variable system. The reduction of rivers to a handful of waterholes during drought highlights both the importance and vulnerability of these refuges.
The main factors leading to the permanent nature of Yapunyah Waterhole include: The rocky substrate (bottom) which holds water; The steep nature of the surrounding landscape which causes scouring during high rainfall events and increases the depth. The steep (and rocky) landscape also protects it from drying winds; Local run-off from the adjacent hard country, tops up the waterhole during smaller rainfall events in the dry season; and The water is not used for domestic purposes because of its remote and inaccessible location.
Habitats
Rockholes, ledges, overhangs and riparian zones at the waterhole provide a range of habitats for native flora and fauna, including the vulnerable yellow-footed rock wallaby and the endemic Cooper Creek Turtle. The Yapunyah waterhole is a healthy aquatic system with no evidence of introduced fish species, cane toads, weeds or feral mammals (such as pigs and goats). It has abundant wildlife and a unique environment that provides a refuge for native species to survive the dry times.