SITE CHARACTERISTICS
Figure 1. Map indicating the position of the 24 gully sites in the monitoring and maintenance project.
LOCATION
The 24 sites are situated in the catchments of Bowen and Bogie rivers and stretched from the lower Burdekin River in the north to the upper reaches of the Little Bowen River in the south( Figure 1). Most of the sites were along the Bowen River and its tributaries.
This region is considered part of the dry tropics region of Queensland. Average temperatures range from a high of 34 ℃ in December to a low of 9.5 ℃ in July. The bulk of rainfall occurs in the summer months— December to March. Rainfall during the monitoring period is detailed in the next section.
SOILS AND LAND TYPE
Many of the sites had similar soil, vegetation and landform characteristics. Under the Burdekin region Grazing Land Management land types classification( Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, 2011) the five largescale sites were in the‘ Loamy alluvial’ land type and, according to soil tests, were in Sodosol soil type. Sodosols are one of 15 larger soil groups( Orders) under the Australian Soil Classification system( CSIRO, 2025). Sodosols are typically fragile soils that have structural( e. g. distinct topsoil and subsoils) and chemical( e. g. high sodium) properties that make them prone to erosion.
4 GULLY MAINTENANCE AND MONITORING TECHNICAL REPORT