1.1.1 Bioregion


The Central West subregion is part of the Northern Inland Catchments bioregion (Figure 3). The Northern Inland Catchments bioregion is located west of the Great Dividing Range in eastern Australia. It includes parts of the northern Murray–Darling Basin in northern NSW and southern Queensland. Parts of the northern Murray–Darling Basin that are not underlain by coal are not included. The Northern Inland Catchments bioregion adjoins the Clarence‑Moreton bioregion in the north-east, and the Northern Sydney Basin bioregion in the south. It covers an area of about 248,000 km2.

The Central West subregion boundary was the same as the NSW Central West Catchment Management Authority boundary[1] over the extent of the coal-bearing geological basins. The north-eastern boundary approximately follows the boundary between the Namoi river basin, outside the subregion, and the Castlereagh river basin, inside the subregion (Figure 28). East to west, the southern boundary follows the top of the Great Dividing Range across the geological Sydney Basin, then follows the southern extent of the geological Surat and Gunnedah basins. The western boundary follows the extent of the geological Surat Basin (Figure 16).

Figure 3

Figure 3 Northern Inland Catchments bioregion and subregions

Last updated:
5 January 2018