Stormwater & Detention Basins

Stormwater management is one of the most significant seasonal issues facing Barron Catchment Care and is the focus of major projects in the Upper and Middle Zones of the catchment, to manage and mitigate localised flooding and erosion.

Like all catchments in the Wet Tropics, the Barron River receives high rainfall in the summer monsoon, and lighter falls throughout the remainder of the year. Annual rainfall varies from over 2500m in the upper catchment (or higher in the Lamb Range), through 900 mm in drier parts of the middle catchment, to 2000 mm on the coastal plain.

A feature of the catchment is the dense, fine network of small streams, which flow over a highly modified landscape. The intense summer storms can dump huge volumes of water into the catchment in a short time. The stormwater moves in sheets across the landscape, and channels into streams as hi-energy flows, causing local flooding and erosion at various ‘hotspots’ identified in the catchment.