A total of 127 sociocultural assets were sourced from the Australian Heritage Database (Department of the Environment, 2014; Australian Government Department of the Environment, Dataset 2, Dataset 3, Dataset 4) comprising 124 assets from the Register of the National Estate, two assets from the National Heritage List and one asset from the World Heritage List. No additional sociocultural assets were nominated at the Maranoa-Balonne-Condamine asset workshop in Toowoomba in December 2014. Table 15 shows the breakdown of sociocultural elements and assets by subgroup and class. This includes two assets with similar names: the ‘Gondwana Rainforests of Australia world heritage area’ and the ‘National Heritage Listed Gondwana Rainforests of Australia’, which are in the south-east of the Maranoa-Balonne-Condamine PAE (Figure 12) and are both considered to be water dependent. The National Heritage-listed Taroom Aboriginal Reserve is included in the Indigenous site class of the cultural assets subgroup and is considered to be water dependent based on the presence of floodplain and wetland areas within its spatial extent.
Table 14 Number of sociocultural assets according to subgroup and class in the preliminary assessment extent (PAE) of the Maranoa-Balonne-Condamine subregion
Group |
Subgroup |
Class |
Number of elements |
Number of assets |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sociocultural |
Cultural |
Heritage site |
84 |
84 |
|
Cultural |
Indigenous site |
10 |
10 |
|
Social |
Recreation area |
33 |
33 |
Total |
|
|
127 |
127 |
Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1)
Figure 12 Location of sociocultural assets in the Maranoa-Balonne-Condamine subregion
Most of the sociocultural assets classed as heritage sites are derived from geographically intersecting the Australian Heritage Database with the preliminary assessment extent (PAE) of the Maranoa-Balonne-Condamine subregion. They comprise 68 built heritage and 14 war memorials located in towns such as Dalby, Gatton, Grandchester, Goondiwindi, Jondaryan, Laidley, Mitchell, Roma and Toowoomba (Figure 12). Almost half of the heritage sites (48%) are considered to be water dependent.
The asset list includes ten Indigenous sites from the Australian Heritage Database (Department of the Environment, 2014; Australian Government Department of the Environment, Dataset 2, Dataset 3, Dataset 4), including the National Heritage-listed Taroom Aboriginal Reserve. Other Indigenous sites included in the asset list are Stone Arrangements located near Bell, Cawdor, Gatton and Kogan, the Heifer Creek Art Site near West Haldon, and the Lundavra Carved Trees and Weengallon Rockwells near Goondiwindi (Figure 12). Only three of the ten Indigenous sites are considered to be water dependent: the National Heritage-listed Taroom Aboriginal Reserve, the Heifer Creek Art Site near West Haldon and Rocky Scrub Creek Area on Chalk Mine Rd near Gatton.
The 33 assets classed as recreation areas are predominantly national parks or areas of remnant habitat and most (26) are considered to be water dependent based on the presence of floodplain and wetland areas and shallow groundwater (Figure 12). These include the Bunya Mountains and Scenic Rim national parks, Cadarga Creek Area near Mundubbera, Expedition Range Area near Bauhinia Downs and Barakula State Forest Area near Miles. Remnant habitat areas that are considered water dependent include remnant grassland near Dalby and Jondaryan (approximately 1300 ha), the Isla / Delusion Crossing Snail Site along the Dawson River (approximately 66 ha), the Brigalow Invertebrate Site near Taroom (approximately 245 ha) and the Dalby Cecil Plains Roadside Remnant Dichanthium sericeum Site (approximately 342 ha).