The Cooper subregion is part of the Lake Eyre Basin bioregion (Figure 3). The Lake Eyre Basin bioregion covers an area of approximately 1.31 million km2 of central and north-eastern Australia, including parts of Queensland, NSW, SA and the NT. The Lake Eyre Basin bioregion incorporates the whole of the Lake Eyre drainage catchment as well as portions of several adjacent surface drainage catchments. The main areas of interest within the Lake Eyre Basin bioregion are principally those underlain by four separate coal-bearing geological basins – the Pedirka and Arckaringa basins in the west, and the Galilee and Cooper basins in the east.
The extent of the geological Galilee, Cooper, Pedirka and Arckaringa basins each define subregions within the Lake Eyre Basin bioregion. Assessment of each of these subregions makes up the Lake Eyre Basin Bioregional Assessment.