3.5.4 Sociocultural assets

The water-dependent asset register for the Hunter subregion (companion product 1.3 (Macfarlane et al., 2016); Bioregional Assessment Programme, 2017) contains 307 sociocultural assets that have been deemed to be water dependent. Of these, 5 assets in the ‘Social’ subgroup and 62 assets in the ‘Cultural’ subgroup intersect with the zone of potential hydrological change. Thus it is very unlikely that hydrological changes associated with coal resource development will affect the remaining 240 sociocultural assets.

The nature of the water dependency for sociocultural assets is vaguely defined, thus it is difficult to comment on the impact of any potential hydrological changes on these assets. Assets were deemed to be water dependent by association with water-dependent landscapes. For example, a heritage-listed building was deemed to be water dependent if it was within 500 m of a water body, for example a river or stream (companion product 1.3 for the Hunter subregion (Macfarlane et al., 2016)). Within the ‘Cultural’ subgroup of the sociocultural assets that occur within the zone of potential hydrological change, 45 assets listed in the Register of the National Estate are built infrastructure, including four bridges. The Bioregional Assessment Programme does not have the expertise to comment on potential impacts of changes in hydrological regimes on built infrastructure.

The remaining 22 sociocultural assets (17 in the ‘Cultural’ subgroup and 5 in the ‘Social’ subgroup) are reserves or national parks. These are composed of a range of water-dependent landscape classes. A breakdown by area or length of each of the landscape groups is given in Table 41. A breakdown of each subgroup by landscape class is provided for the GDE landscape classes in Table 42, for the riverine landscape classes in Table 43 and the coastal lakes and estuaries landscape classes in Table 44.

There are three National Heritage-listed areas within the zone of potential hydrological change in the Hunter subregion as well as one World Heritage Area:

Owing to the coastal environment of Catherine Hill Bay Heritage Conservation Area and Rathmines Park, it is unlikely that these National Heritage-listed sites will be impacted due to additional coal resource development.

There are 137 km² of the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Area within the zone of potential hydrological change in the Hunter subregion (Figure 74). Of the potentially impacted landscape classes, it is associated with forested wetlands, permanent or perennial streams, and lowly to highly intermittent streams.

Figure 74 Distribution of selected National Heritage-listed, World Heritage-listed and the Important Bird Area assets associated with the Greater Blue Mountains Area in the zone of potential hydrological change, overlaid with groundwater-dependent ecosystem (GDE) and coastal lakes and estuaries landscape classes

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 4, Dataset 6, Dataset 7, Dataset 8, Dataset 9)

There are two Indigenous sites within the zone of potential hydrological change in the Hunter subregion:

Owing to the coastal environment of Swansea Heads, it is unlikely that this Indigenous site will be impacted due to additional coal resource development. The Bobadeen Area (Hands on the Rock Shelter) is a painted rock shelter containing a frieze of red hand-stencils about 100 m long located near Queens Creek (Moore, 1970). The site has been interfered with, both by humans and by water. The site is located near lowly to highly intermittent streams. An assessment of the potential impact of changed stream hydrology on the site would require a site-specific study.

Table 41 Sociocultural assets in the zone of potential hydrological change: area or length in water-dependent landscape groups

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1, Dataset 2)

Table 42 Sociocultural assets in the zone of potential hydrological change: area in landscape classes in the ‘GDE’ landscape group

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1, Dataset 2)

Table 43 Sociocultural assets in the zone of potential hydrological change: length in landscape classes in the ‘Riverine’ landscape group

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1, Dataset 2)

Table 44 Sociocultural assets in the zone of potential hydrological change: area in landscape classes in the ‘Coastal lakes and estuaries’ landscape group

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1, Dataset 2)